


Dark Horizens

by Babykitsune9



Category: Avengers, Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 18:02:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 16
Words: 30,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20782805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: It was all Starks fault, he stuck his nose where it didn't belong and now she was trapped by a ridiculous contract stating that she would protect certain individuals in Wakanda from enemy forces. How was she supposed to know that they would practically adopt her! Fem Ichigo story. no definite pairings yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**This is going to be another Bleach/Avengers crossover. **

**Fem Ichigo is going to be going by the name, Shion, because it's stuck in my head and I can't get it out. And as of now there are no pairings, but that may change later on if anyone has any suggestions.**

* * *

The plane ride to Wakanda was...painfully long and boring. Not that she had expected it to be anything else. After all, one usually didn't tend to long for excitement when flying several hundred thousand feet up in the air across the country/ocean in someone's private jet.

It simply wasn't wise to want, _something_. A tornado, a volcano, an engine stalling or even a terrorist attack. While all of them would have killed time and lessened her boredom significantly, it still wasn't wise to want such things to occur.

"Do you understand why I'm sending you to Wakanda?" The annoyingly chipper voice of her tormentor asked from the other end of the web cam attached to her computer.

She pointedly glared at the man, silently promising that once everything was settled that she would deal out _swift_ and _painful_ retaliation for this clusterfuck that he'd dragged her practically kicking and screaming into barely a month after their first accidental meeting.

Thinking back on that day- she seethed over the fact that she had decided not to kill him. Not that she normally went psycho ax-murderer on people or anything. But there were simply some people that she _could_ and _should_ make an exception for.

It was only one damned man. It wasn't like she'd be killing millions for god's sake.

"Hey! I'm talking to you kid-"

She made an angry sound in the back of her throat before finally snapping, "_Shut. It!_ I can hear you just fine- I don't need you to constantly breathe down my neck about the same shit! I get it! I'm going to Wakanda to live for a little while and protect your former friends from harm- while you play devil's advocate, and amend the Accords so that you can bring them all home. That doesn't mean that I have to _like_ being uprooted out of the blue by some richer-than-thou _dick wad_ who can't clean up his own fucking messes!"

The man on the web cam let out a low whistle before saying, "Whoa hostile. Damn you're cranky. What? Did you forget to grab a nap during the trip or something?"

"I haven't slept in over seventy two hours you little bastard! I have every right to be in a piss poor mood. It's past nine a.m. here. And I'm still awake! Do you have any idea how much I would _kill_ for some fucking sleep right now? Or better yet, some coffee. Because if you can't figure it out without me spelling it out for you, slowly, then you're dumber than you look."

He gaped at her in slack jawed disbelief, causing her lips to twitch in amusement as she reached out with one hand and abruptly slammed the laptop shut before chucking it across the cabin, where it hit the wall and shattered into pieces. Effectively ending their 'conversation' before he could recover enough to make some kind of annoyingly witty come back.

Sighing as she reached up to massage her temples to alleviate some of the throbbing behind her eyes, she heard the pilot come over the speaker and say that the plane would be landing soon. Settling herself back in her seat, she closed her eyes for several moments and let her mind drift knowing that once the plane landed, and she stepped off of it- she would be on the clock.

She must have actually, finally managed to doze off. Because one moment she was just trying to relax and the next, she was being gently shaken awake by the guy that had flown the plane.

"Miss? Miss? Hey, we're here." The pilot said as she let out a goan and let her eyes flutter open as he stepped back away from her.

"We land?" She asked tiredly as she stretched her arms up over her head. The guy nodded his head and grinned as she slowly got up and collected her bags of clothing and weapons and followed him to the door of the plane where he stood back and let her move to peek outside before proudly exclaiming.

"Welcome to Wakanda."

She turned her head to glance at him for a second, taking note of his expression before realizing that he must have originally come from the country he'd just mentioned, and nodded her head at him before softly thanking him for the flight and then stepping off of the plane.

* * *

"So... What exactly do you know about the person that Tony's decided to send here?" Clint asked curiously as he eyed T'Challa.

The king, merely eyed the former assassin for a moment before simply saying. "Not much. Stark has only told me the barest minimum about the person. I do know that said person is a female originally from Japan. I also know that she has a specific skill set. But he never really told me much of anything else about her aside from her name and a few other small things about her."

"Okay. So what is the mystery lady's name then?" Steve asked from where he sat, next to Bucky.

"Shion Kurosaki."

Scott snorted and muttered, "Weird name."

"Actually, I think the name is rather nice," T'Challa said more to himself than anyone else before going on to say, "I managed to have Shuri dig up a few things about the woman. However most information about her is strangely buried and difficult to gain access to even for me."

"Okay... So- What do we know about her? Aside from the fact that she's female and her name that is?"

"Shion Kurosaki, daughter of well respected doctor, Isshin Kurosaki. Mother- Misaki Kurosaki, deceased. She has two younger sisters, Yuzu and Karin both of which are eleven years old and help their father in his family owned and operated clinic."

"So...not a lot then." Clint muttered in disappointment.

T'Challa sighed understanding the man's frustration. However he had spoken with Stark on several occasions at length about the woman and the two had come to an understanding that she would _not_ do anything to rile or cause discord among the group that he had given sanctuary.

"I'm afraid not. And Stark refused to tell me more than I already managed to dig up."

"Okay so when does she get here?"

"She should be arriving sometime within the next hour or so from the airport. I have already sent a car ahead with Okoye to bring her here. Until then, I suppose that we must simply sit here and wait for her arrival."

* * *

The moment that Okoye noted the girl that stepped off of Stark's private jet, she almost did a double take from shock. She had been advised to expect a grown woman instead of...well, a mere teenager.

_My king- Reduced to a glorified babysitter._ _Well... better him than me._ The woman thought as the teen cautiously approached her until she stood a few feet away and then dropped her bags to the ground at her feet and gave her her friendliest smile and asked politely.

"Hello. Is this the car requested to pick up Kurosaki?"

Okoye merely nodded her head, not really sure what she should do. Part of her had so many questions and another part of her was just dying to watch things play out. She was secretly betting that things would play out much like a train wreck.

Which would be all kinds of entertaining for her to watch since her king had not been thrown for a loop in a good long while.

The girl gave her a thin lipped smile and then moved towards the front of the car and quietly opened the door, causing Okoye to tense up a little bit, almost as if she were expecting her to climb in and drive off to take the expensive vehicle for a joy ride. However became puzzled when the girl simply stood there for a moment in uncomfortably awkward silence and then called out to her, "Ma'am? Come on. Daylight is burning."

Oh. _Oh!_ She hadn't opened the door to get in. She had opened the car door for Okoye in an outdatedly polite- if a little bizarrely unfeminine- gesture that was meant to be polite. In a similar manner to how old fashioned males would open a door for a woman.

It was a strangely sweet gesture. If a little inappropriate for one who was both so young and undeniably_ female_.

"Uh...thank you?" Okoye said awkwardly as she walked over to where the girl stood patiently waiting on her, and slowly slid herself into the car and blinked as the teen gently closed the door behind her before moving back to where she had dropped her bags and quietly picked them up and then opened the door to the back and quickly climbed in and shut the door before noticing that Okoye was twisted around in her seat, looking at her oddly.

Instantly feeling her hackles rising, she demanded. "What? D-did I just do something wrong?"

"No. I am merely curious."

"Oh."

"Is opening a car door _normal_ for a girl?"

"Uh...not really."

"Then why-"

"It's something that I used to do for my mom and younger sisters."

"A habit then?"

"Sure, let's go with that." The teen muttered as Okoye tilted her head slightly to the side and studied her for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and then turning back around to face the front and started the car.


	2. Chapter 2

The teen fell asleep not even five minutes into the drive. Leaving Okoye alone to her thoughts for the time being. Which was perfectly fine with the woman as she cast yet another curious glance back at the teen using the overhead mirror.

The girl was a curious- albeit oddly _lovely_ looking little thing.

Her body was all delicate and petite build, soft curves, abnormal height, coupled with unique and very distinguishable features. Such as her vivid, eerie neon blue colored eyes barely hidden underneath long, shaggy, wild looking blond-ish orange colored hair that hung in her face, and down her back almost to her slim waist.

Yes, she truly was a unique and lovely girl.

She would certainly catch more than a few eyes around the palace. Which she supposed that she should forewarn her king about if he didn't want an international incident occurring within his home.

Finally after an hour long drive, she pulled the car up to the palace noting that her king, and the former Avenger's were all waiting for her arrival. Parking the vehicle, Okoye slowly turned in her seat and lightly grasped the girl's pant's leg and tugged on it causing an automatic if somewhat _violent_ response from the girl as she jerked awake.

Her hand automatically grasping her wrist in a painfully bruising grip as she stared blankly ahead for a moment before finally seeming to awaken completely and slowly released her and muttered something in a drowsy tone that Okoye didn't understand.

Probably because it was in her native tongue before she switched back over to English and apologized for grabbing her like that. Earning a strange look from her as she slowly nodded her head in understanding.

She had been a warrior long enough to know the bodily responses of other warriors that had seen years of long and grueling battles, and bloodshed.

She couldn't imagine just what the teen had gone through to respond to another's presence in such a way. She could only hazard to guess that it wasn't anything good.

"We are here." She finally said as she gave the girl another minute or so to collect herself and wake up a little bit more. The girl merely bit back a yawn and shook her head as if to clear it as she thanked her for the ride and apologized again for grabbing her as she collected her bags and opened the car door and slowly climbed out.

* * *

Of all the things that T'Challa and the rogue Avengers had been expecting- the person that got out of the car that he had sent to pick the Kurosaki woman up, wasn't it. At first glance, the person that climbed out of the car looked frightfully young.

Perhaps no older than sixteen year of age.

If it were not for her startling height, and peculiarly lovely feature's... T'Challa would swear up and down that she was an escort of some kind. Though her clothing alone, pretty much shot that theory right out of the water.

Who the hell comes to such a dry and humid country in the middle of a heat wave and wears a black denim jacket and jeans with both of the knees out? He wondered as he looked the young lady over a little more.

Underneath the jacket she was wearing a plain black T-shirt with the word, **DARE**, scrawled along the top of it in bold red letters. She had a leather belt around her slim waist, fingerless gloves on her small hands, black leather combat boots with wide, small two inch heels and a... What looked at first like a weird looking skull and crossbones keychain carved out of wood hung from her belt from a thick, heavy looking chain.

Yes, this was not what he and the others had been led to expect from Stark. And he would be contacting the man again later on, once the girl was settled to have words with him.

Slipping one of her bags up onto one of her slender shoulder's, she grabbed the other lying at her feet and started walking. Completely undaunted by the show of people that had come to check her out, the girl walked up to the steps of his palace and then paused.

"Hello. Are you king T'Challa?" She asked in flawless English as she stared at him. He had to mentally shake himself just to remember that he had manners, and it would terrible of him _not_ to use them.

Putting on his normal, polite smile he walked down to greet her as he responded, "Indeed little one. Though I must confess that you were not what we were led to expect from someone hired by Mr. Stark."

The girl made a funny sound and muttered something inaudible under her breath before simply saying, "Yeah. I can see that."

"How is it that you came to work for one such as Stark?" T'Challa asked, unable to stop himself from feeling curious about the answer. After all, Stark tended to surround himself with all kinds of curiosities. Human and otherwise. Which sort of begged the question.

Which category did this child fall under?

Human? Or other?

"Would you believe me if I said that I did nothing special?" The girl asked almost hopefully. T'Challa's smile stayed firmly in place, the only part of his expression that differed from before was the fact that he was now giving her a carefully calculated look that had her saying, "So that's a no-go huh?"

"W-What? What do you mean by you did, _nothing special_?" He finally stammered out.

She sighed and raised a hand to rub at the nape of her neck awkwardly as she explained, "What I mean is, that I didn't really do anything to impress anyone. I was kind of busy on a job the first time Mr. Stark and I met-"

"Oh? I find that a little bit hard to believe. Especially since Mr. Stark tends to surround himself with very unique individuals."

"I wouldn't know. Up until I finished my former job I'd spent the better part of eight months or so in a coma."

"What?! But then- when did you wake up?"

The girl made another funny sound in the back of her throat as she seemed to think over the question before replying, "A little less than two months, I guess."

"And you are already out of the hospital and on your feet again- That is amazing! You will have to tell me and my friends _all_ about what happened to you. And how you came to work for Mr. Stark."

The girl looked more than a little bit uncomfortable for a moment as she began to awkwardly shift her weight from one foot to another. "Yeah... Sure." She said, looking less than thrilled about the prospect of people asking her any questions. However T'Challa couldn't simply let the chance to gather information on her pass him up as he realized that he had yet to introduce the girl to the others.

"Oh! Forgive my rudeness, little one. Come and let me introduce you to my friends." He said jovially as he placed a hand between her shoulder blades and practically had to _push_ her up the steps to greet the others.


	3. Chapter 3

Shion eyed the rogue Avengers anxiously, not entirely certain about how _well_ her presence would be received by them. The adults must have known this, or maybe they simply saw it in the nervous way that she shifted from foot to foot in an effort to resist the urge to fidget with her jacket sleeves or something.

The tall blond guy, Steve something or other, was the first to step forward and greet her. Extending his hand for her to shake as he watched her carefully reach out and take his hand. "Hello. My name is Steve. The guy to my right is my childhood friend, Bucky Barnes-" He narrowed his eyes at her a little bit as he said the man's name. Apparently wondering how she would react to hearing it. And was somewhat thrown off guard when she turned to Bucky and politely greeted him with a warm smile before turning her attention to everyone else.

She greeted everyone the same.

Politely. Kindly. With no change in her body language or her expression, which made it difficult for them to read her. At least until Scott stepped up to introduce himself and asked her some questions.

"Hey, my name is Scott. So... What are you doing way out here? How old are you? Where's is your family? Do they know that you're working for Stark? Did I already ask you how old you are yet?"

"Hi Scott, my name is Shion. I'm on a job- I'll explain a little more once we're inside. I'm fourteen. I have no clue where my family is. I haven't seen them in a year and three months due to work and my eight month long coma. And yes, you asked me my age already. I'm betting that you're a dad, aren't you?"

Scott opened his mouth to say something but abruptly shut it again when Clint asked, "You're fourteen? Like honest to god, fourteen? Or you're actually closer to eighteen and adopting the bad habit of lying about your age?"

"I'm actually fourteen," Shion said as she turned her head to look at him. "My birthday is in another six months. During the middle of the fall."

"A-And you're working for Stark?!" Sam demanded in a shocked tone.

She sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose as Steve finally spoke up again, "I think we should all go inside and maybe..._talk_ about some stuff."

"Yes please. I'm literally dead on my feet here." She said pitifully.

"Yes, of course. Come, little one. Let us go find someplace private in which to speak and let you rest some." T'Challa said kindly as he started to reach out to take one of her bags when she stopped him with a light touch to his hand.

"I can carry my stuff, sir. There's no need for you to bother." She said gently as she quickly pulled her hand back with a small frown marring her features.

"Very well," T'Challa said after a heartbeat or two before motioning for her to walk ahead of him. "Please, ladies first."

"Um... O-Okay." Shion said awkwardly as she turned and started up the steps and paused in front of Natasha long enough to ask in a rush, "Will you walk with me? I feel weird with so many people walking behind me."

Nat blinked at her and seemed to mull over her words before slowly nodding her head. Accepting the teen's strange request and then moved to join her ahead of everyone else as everyone fell into step at a discreet distance away from them.

The first thing that everyone noticed as the teen walked ahead of them was that she made no noise as she moved. Everything from her footfalls, to her clothing- hell, even the weird keychain attached to her belt- _none_ of it whatsoever made any kind of sound.

Whether this fact was deliberate or otherwise, raised all kinds of red flags with the group.

The second thing that they noticed about the girl, was that she was incredibly alert and watchful. Studying each of her surroundings with a critical, _cautious_ eye that bespoke of her hyperawareness.

Such behavior was unusually similar of those who had just been to war and suffered from PTSD, paranoia and other side effects from suffering such trauma.

The fact that these things were manifesting in a mere child of fourteen years, was horrifying to them. Yet they held their silence as they finally reached one of T'Challa's meeting rooms and slowly filed into it as the girl was placing her bags down against one of the far walls out of the way before digging something out of one of them and then zipping it back up and then straightening herself back to her full height as she stuffed what looked like a cell phone into one of her jacket pockets before moving to grab a seat.

"Okay. Ask you're questions, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability." Shion said as everyone grabbed a chair and seated themselves.

"Alright. Let's start off with the multi million dollar question, why are you here?" Nat asked curiously from her seat next to Steve. Shion tiredly nodded her head before replying,

"I'm here because I'm part of a very specialized military unit that is practically unheard of. These people go way _beyond_ special forces, seals, army rangers and the black berets. And before you ask why a mere kid is part of such a specialized military group, I will just say this- they tend to draft people with particular talents- regardless of their age. In fact, there are _several_ other children between the ages of nine and sixteen, aside from myself, that are also part of the unit."

The shell shocked/stupefied/horrified expressions on their faces might have stopped Shion from speaking again on a normal day, however this was simply something that needed to be said.

"A majority of the people drafted into the unit, have _very_ destructive abilities. So much so that some of us can take on entire armies with numbers in the _thousands_, alone, and walk away without a scratch. Each one of us is either an experiment of some kind- used to try and re create Mr. Roger's super soldier abilities- or we are simply born with the X-gene and grow into their abilities with time, age, and special training. Are you still with me so far?"

"Yes. Please, continue." T'Challa urged her in a gentle tone.

Shion nodded her head and continued speaking. "Because we are part of an unknown and unnamed military unit, we usually function as a mercenary group. What that means is that if a county in in conflict or breaks out into war- their government can hire us for specific jobs. Stopping the conflict, fighting their wars for them, treating the injured and dying. We can even be hired by people to act as bodyguards for specific individuals and VIP's."

"Mr. Stark came across me and some friends several weeks ago while on a rescue mission to save one of our own. S-She's a friend with the ability to bend the laws of time and space and physics to her whim. Some terrorists found out about her abilities and kidnapped her, wanting to weaponize her abilities on a global scale. If they had managed to go through with their plans, she would have been used to kill _millions _of innocent people."

"Our orders were clear. Either rescue her or destroy her. It took some doing, but we managed to get her back safe and sound. However we were kind of interrupted in the middle of our mission by an outsider. A particular irritating, armor wearing guy. He damn near blew our whole operation straight to hell and almost got three of my team killed. But we managed to get our friend back and we did it with no loss of life. So that's...something at least."

"Anyways, he must have gotten curious or something because three days after I was finally told to go home, the bastard practically kidnapped me- and shipped me here after conning me into signing a contract with him. So...um... _Here I_ _am_. Does anyone have any further questions?"

Scott raised his hand to indicate that he had one- or more questions for her.

"D-Does your family know that you were drafted by the military?"

"No."

"How is that even possible?"

"It's fairly simple to hide such things with the right kind of help."

"B-But what if you get hurt? Wouldn't someone find out _something_?"

Shion shrugged her shoulders, uncertain of how to respond to Scott's questions. "Most injuries and such are written off as 'accidents'." Scott opened his mouth to ask something else but she quickly cut him off, "You're forgetting, I only recently woke up from a coma. One that was caused by injuries sustained while on the job. And I can tell you this, they were written off as wounds sustained in a wrong place, wrong time kind of thing."

Everything seemed to be going well, when Scott suddenly asked out of the blue, "Wait! If you were on a job three days before you came here...were you..._injured_?"

"And just like that, this conversation is over," Shion said in a rush as she turned to look at T'Challa and asked, "Can I go now?"

"I would rather you answer Scott's question," T'Challa said.

Shion scowled at him and muttered something under her breath as she sank a little bit further down in her seat. Taking her actions as her reply to the question, T'Challa sighed and then slowly stood up as he said, "Come, little one. I will see you to the infirmary to be checked out before I take you to your room."


	4. Chapter 4

"Can we talk about this? I feel like we should talk about this. _Can we talk about this_?" Shion asked from her place, tossed over Barnes shoulder. Her body practically bent in half backwards as she stared wide eyed at Rogers who was walking along behind his friend.

"T'Challa wants you to be looked at." The blond said with a hint of amusement dancing in his blue eyes as a small grin tugged at his lips.

"I understand that. B-But I kind of have a phobia of doctors. Any kind of doctors really. I don't even like my own _dad_ because he's a doctor." The kid squeaked out as Steve chuckled softly at her freaked out expression.

"Don't worry kid, Princess Shuri will just give you a quick physical and then if there are no problems- she'll send you on your way." Bucky said as he adjusted his grip on her legs so that his hand wouldn't be so close to...uh, her crotch?

"That's easy for you to say- I don't know the princess. How do I know she isn't some mad doctor or something? Actually I take that back. I think I would actually prefer a mad doctor to this. C-Can you please put me down now, Mr. Barnes?"

"King's orders, kid. Your feet aren't to touch the ground until after you've been looked at." Barnes replied smoothly, trying his damndest not to flat out snicker like Steve was doing now as she kid spat out.

_"Sadists!"_ Earning her a not so gentle pinch to the inside of her leg from Bucky. "Ow! _Son of a-_ Did you just fucking pinch me Barnes?!"

Steve had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from flat out laughing at the girl as Bucky said something about troublesome children loudly enough for her to gasp in feminine outrage as the man chortled at her as they finally reached Shuri's lair- er, lab- er, infirmary- he meant to say _infirmary_.

"Captain, Barnes, what are the two of you doing here?" The princess asked as she looked away from one of her computer's to see what they were doing. And blinked at the peculiar sight of someone slung over one of the Sergeant's shoulders. "Who is your friend?" The princess asked curiously as Barnes slipped the kid from his shoulder and put her on her feet in front of him where she staggered a little bit and probably would have fallen if not for Steve and Barnes both grabbing a hold of her arms.

"This is your brother's latest guest, Shion Kurosaki. T'Challa was wondering if you would mind looking her over since she got injured a few days ago while on the job."

"Ah. So we have moved on from adopting broken white boys to...oriental school girls? I never took my brother for the Lolita type."

Shion made a funny little strained sound in the back of her throat as Bucky laughed again. Finding the very idea of T'Challa being the type of man to be into Lolita stuff incredibly funny as Shuri rolled her eyes and sighed before holding her hand out to Shion and saying dramatically, "Come, my newly adopted oriental sister. Let me help you escape the mad clutches of your older, broken, white brothers."

Shion made another funny little sound, this one a tad bit more panicked sounding than the last, as the princess took her hand and practically began to drag her away while chattering at her about how the 'boys' were usually rowdier than this- so that must mean that they like her.

Frankly she would hate to know what they were like when they hated her, Shion thought to herself as the princess led her over to a examination table in the middle of the room and directed her to jump up so that she could look her over properly.

Steve and Bucky hung back close to the door, just in case the kid decided to try her luck running away, and kept a careful eye on the two as the princess checked her heart, her blood pressure, her lungs and then stepped back and asked her to remove her shirt.

Shion squeaked at the princesses request and her wide, eerie blue eyes automatically locked on the two men. Both of whom had frozen up like deer caught up in the headlights of a run away vehicle.

"C-Can I please keep my shirt on?" The teen squeaked as she clutched her T-shirt in a white knuckled grip.

"No. If you were injured then I need to be able to see what hurts since you seem to put up with my poking and prodding with the same grace that Steve and Barnes do."

"B-But-"

"No buts child. _Strip_."

The teen made a whimpering sound, as Shuri turned to the two men and barked out, "You two- turn your backs now!" And when they were too slow doing as she bid them, she made a growling sound and then chucked a screw driver at the both of their heads.

Watching in morbid fascination as the two men quickly scurried to turn their backs once the threat of more projectiles being thrown at them, was done.

Shion waited until she was absolutely certain that the men's backs were turned and they couldn't see anything before she reluctantly slipped out of her jacket and then pulled her shirt off and laid it over her legs and waited with her heart in her throat for the inevitable sound of distress or gasp of horror.

* * *

Shuri hadn't known exactly what to expect as far as injuries went, but the sheer amount of scar tissue littering the young girls body was definitely _not_ it. Openly gaping at the various scars that she could plainly see, she sub consciously started to circle the examination table like a shark.

Taking in each and every old injury, and healing wound that she could.

She didn't know what sort of 'job' this girl had, but if her scars were anything at all to go by- she should have been dead a hundred times over. How anyone could accumulate so many old wounds and not be in chronic pain from the severity of them, was beyond her.

The tissue damage alone should have crippled the child.

"H-How did you... What happened to- _Dear gods,_" She breathed in shock as she reached out and very carefully ran her fingertips along one of the most vicious looking scars. The skin was pale, and puckered underneath her fingers. Yet the pain that must have been inflicted upon the teen was no less damaging today than it had been the day that she had first received the wound. "Were you..._.tortured_?" She finally managed to ask after a heartbeat or so of silence.

Across the room, Steve and Bucky heard Shuri ask the kid if she had been tortured and were hard pressed to turn around and see what had her asking such a thing. In fact, Steve had to reach out and put his arm around Bucky's shoulders just to keep him from turning back around and _trying_ to see what Shuri was seeing.

Shion didn't say anything. She didn't dare to either confirm nor deny anything. Instead she simply sat very still and waited for the woman to finish up her exam so that she could re dress herself and run and maybe hole herself away somewhere 'safe' for a few hours and pretend that this never happened.

"These scars are terrible child. This one alone looks as if someone or something tried to cleave you in two! How did you manage to survive this? Based on the amount of scar tissue, I'm surprised that you haven't suffered any severe nerve damage, or even lost your arm! And this scar between your shoulders- it's a blade wound, isn't it? It must have pierced your heart directly...shredding the muscle and the organ."

"A-Are you done?"

"What?"

"I'd like to leave now." Shion said a little bit more forcefully.

"Oh, yes of course. Well aside from your scars I see nothing to indicate any kind of injury. Serious or otherwise."

"Great. I'm leaving then." Shion said as she quickly pulled her shirt back on and then grabbed her jacket and jumped down off of the table and started walking. She brushed by Steve and Bucky and didn't stop even when Steve called out to her as she slipped out the door and just kept going.


	5. Chapter 5

"Shuri?" Steve said as he turned to look at the princess. The woman looked upset to him. And rightly so if she was right about the girl having been tortured.

"Please keep an eye on her Rogers. I must go and speak to my brother." Shuri said as she made a beeline for the door, not caring one way or the other if the man and his friend had any questions. Right now her entire focus was on the wellbeing of the girl.

And for her to make sure that nothing else happened to her- she needed to speak to her brother _immediately _about her findings.

Once she was gone, Steve glanced over at Bucky who was frowning at what they had just learned before finally saying, "I-I'm going to go look for the kid. She shouldn't be left alone right now."

"Okay. I'll come too."

"I'm not sure if that would be very smart Stevie. She might not appreciate a lot of people crowding her right now," Bucky said as he lifted his eyes to look at his friend, noting the worried look on his face before then tacking on, "But I guess there's nothing wrong with trying. If worse, come to worse then I'll tell you to back off for a while."

"Alright, I can live with that." Steve said with a small thin lipped smile as the two left the infirmary to go and track down the girl. The both of them wondering what sort of hellish life she had lived so far. And just what they could do to help her.

* * *

Shion was hopelessly and irrevocably lost.

Honest to god there was simply no helping just how lost she currently was. It had occurred to her at one time or another that she maybe should have paid better attention to where she was going, but sadly that ship seemed to have sailed several times over.

The only thing that she was thankful for so far was the fact that she somehow managed to actually find a door leading outside. Yay her!

So here she was, lost, in what she could only assume was one of the palace garden's- if the many, many, _many_ lovely and exotic flowers was any indication at all. And despite being surrounded by all of the floral beauty, she couldn't seem to enjoy any of it because she felt like crap.

Huffing softly, she dropped down to the ground and then flopped over onto her back and just lay there staring at the sky overhead and just let her mind drift a little until her exhaustion finally caught to her and she somehow managed to doze off.

* * *

Steve and Bucky had spent the past two hours tearing the palace apart, wondering where the kid could have gone off too when Bucky finally suggested that maybe she wound up outside.

Deciding that it was worth a shot, the two quickly slipped outside and split up to find the girl. Steve went towards the part of the palace that was used to grow the sacred red flowers said to be the source of the Black Panther's power. While Bucky decided to head towards the other side of the grounds.

He had already searched around the greenhouse, and was heading on towards the large outside garden that T'Challa had had made for his mother as a gift on her last birthday.

He had just reached it and took a moment to scan the area when he finally caught sight of the girl. Rolling his eyes heavenwards, he huffed and slowly made his way over to see if she was okay. However upon reaching her, he began to fear that she wasn't okay in the least.

She was lying unmoving on the ground, with her hands carefully folded over her stomach.

Frowning as he circled her, he made sure to make enough noise to make anyone- asleep, awake, or dead- aware of his presence in the general vicinity. However the girl didn't move. Didn't twitch. Hell she didn't even crack open an eye to see who he was!

For all she knew he could be a ax-murderer or something!

So why wasn't she doing something? He wondered curiously before finally moving to kneel down next to her and reached out hesitantly to press his fingers to the side of her throat, and swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat as he felt panic begin to stir within him when he couldn't find any trace of a pulse underneath his fingertips.

"Shit," He muttered as he then reached out and placed his hand over her chest to see if he could feel anything there. Again he felt nothing. And again he felt himself starting to panic as his thoughts began to run away with him.

What could have caused her heart to stop? Poison? An underlying medical condition? Had she taken something before finding her way outside? Sleeping pills maybe?

Her body was still warm. And she looked as if she were only sleeping- so... He was about to remove his hand and get into position to try doing CPR when her hand suddenly shot out and wrapped around his wrist, eliciting a loud, and if anyone ever asked him-_ masculine_ scream.

That wasn't high pitched, terrified nor girly in the least as he felt his heart trying to beat it's way out of his chest while the kid somehow managed to loop one of her legs around his neck and then rolled them both until he was lying on the ground- still screaming, by the way- with the kid wrapped around him like a...a cuddly little boa constrictor.

"The fuck?" He gasped out as the kid burrowed her face into a nice position, tucked underneath his chin and let out a content little sigh as he lifted his head a little bit off of the ground to try and look down at her before then letting his head drop back to the ground with a dull thud.

Jesus, he felt like his heart was about to jump right out of his chest!

"Bucky!" He heard Steve call out as he came running around the corner of the palace and into the garden before sliding to a stop and stared down at the two.

"Hey Stevie... Ugh, d-do you think that you can pry the kid off of me- like, before I piss myself or something? She just scared the fuck out of me?"

"I figured," Steve said as he quietly walked over to the two and studied the girl before simply saying, "I've only heard you scream like that once before back home, that time we went to the carnival."

"I fucking_ hated_ that rollercoaster."

"Oh I know." Steve said with a wry grin as he tacked on, "I also saw the drawings you made of burning it down."

"Dammit, I was sure that I hid those," Bucky muttered in a sulky tone before then demanding, "Now that you know of my evil plans for that rollercoaster- get this damn kid off of me."

Steve sniggered as he said, "No way, Buck. She looks really comfortable where she is," Bucky opened his mouth to say something but shut it again when Steve finally pointed out, "Besides, the kid looks like she could use the uninterrupted rest. Have you seen the dark circles under her eyes?"

"Fine." Bucky muttered as he tried to relax himself as Steve found a nice place on the ground next to him to lay down on and before Bucky could even warn him to be careful not to get grabbed, Steve was snatched by the kid and unceremoniously dragged across the small space until he was almost lying half on top of Bucky.

Who let out a low rumbling sound that could easily be mistaken as either a growl, or barely suppressed laughter as Steve blushed and flailed around for a few moments at having his face so tightly pressed against the sleeping girl's chest before finally giving up any and all plans to flee- cause it wasn't like the damn kid was going to let him go at the moment anyways- with a huff.

* * *

"So how is the kid adjusting so far?" Tony asked from the other end of the webcam as T'Challa sat back in his seat, a glass of bourbon sitting untouched on the table next to his hand as he replied,

"She seems...well enough." It was a lie of course, Shuri had come to him a little while ago and told him of the terrible scars littering her body.

Almost all of which, she had explained were specifically placed with the intent to do irreparable damage, cause loss of limb, severe nerve damage or in the most extreme cases, loss of _life_.

However that wasn't all that she had seemed to find. She had also mentioned that the girl seemed to be a victim of torture. Though she wasn't totally sure about the full extent of it due to the fact that Shion had started to freak out on her and had left before she could get any of her questions answered.

As it was right now, T'Challa was more than a little bit inclined to keep an incredibly close eye on the girl.

"Yeah, even I know that that's a lie, T'Challa. So try again."

"Very well," The king said as he sat forward in his seat a little bit and steepled his fingers. "Tell me everything that you can about the girl. Just what kind of secret military branch is she working for anyways?"

Tony seemed to consider his demands for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "Okay, I'll bite. Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know who I let into my home."

"Alright one second," Tony said as he pulled up various things on the screen using his A.I. "Shion Kurosaki... Ah here it is!" Tony chirped as he fixed what he had pulled up so that T'Challa could see it as well.

It was a home video or something of the girl with some other kids. Two boys, one of which looked like he a born warrior- he was so damned _huge_ that it took all T'Challa had not to flat out gape. While the other was barely taller than the girl and had a stern look on his face.

There were two other girls, one looked like she barely reached Shion's chest in height. While the other had a very kind and gentle look about her.

One moment the kids looked as if they were walking along, minding their own business, and the next the world around them suddenly erupted into chaos. There were sounds akin to explosions going off, and Shion began barking out orders to her friends to evacuate the civilians on the streets.

A building came down somewhere in the background. The near deafening roar of tons of steel and concrete as it collapsed to the ground- drowned out almost all of the screams from the people around them. The ground trembled and shook violently, as if they had just been hit by a major earthquake and gas mains ruptured and blew up in massive balls of hellfire and flames.

There were scenes of various people- Shions friends, each of them helping people. Some digging the civilians out of ruble, fiery death traps of twisted and melted metal.

There was a scene or two of Shion grabbing a few fleeing civilians, small children and other teenagers- and using her body as a shield to protect them from harm from the still falling debris.

And then _they_ appeared.

Horrifying humanoid beings, pale as death and just as utterly terrifying. Each one wore half skull masks of bleached to stark white- bone. Their expressions were those of _feral_ glee as they zeroed in in Shion and her friends.

The video from there, got more than a little bit weird.

He was able to see Shion and the other kids fighting. Each of them using super human abilities or oddly enough, supernatural abilities. The girl, Shion's abilities appeared as if they were a perfect combination of both _superhuman_ and _supernatural_.

In truth, he wasn't sure what to think of this knowledge.

He felt just a bit overwhelmed by the things he had just learned about the girl. Reaching out he clicked on a few things, making sure to download the video from the computer before it ended and the window shut down.

Once that was done, he reached over and picked up his glass or liquor and took a drink before then placing the glass back down and then asking Tony again to tell him what he knew of the military unit that the girl worked for.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ugh... How can anyone sleep like this?" Bucky mumbled in a disgusted tone. "It isn't the least bit comfortable. And this position is awkward. Are you sure that she's really asleep and not just dicking with us, Stevie?"

_"Myes,"_ Steve mumbled against the teen's chest before squirming a little bit and then turning his head so that he could speak more clearly without feeling like he was violating the kid or something. "I'm sure that she's asleep. She would have gotten tired of messing with us by now, if that was what she was really doing."

"Well I can't take it anymore," Bucky said peevishly before then declaring, "I'm going to start gnawing my arm off. Now, don't worry about getting yourself free- once my arm is off I'll go for help."

Steve looked at him funny for a moment before opening his mouth to ask his friend if he could even chew his metal limb off without hurting himself badly when they both heard some hysterical laughter coming from several feet away, causing both men to stiffen a little bit as Clint suddenly appeared like a fucking ninja and asked in between wheezing breaths, "W-What are you two idiots doing?"

"Well, I'm just sort of...hanging around. And Bucky just decided to try gnawing his arm off and going for help." Steve said in a mock serious tone as Clint came into his line of sight.

"Yeah, I heard that part. Can he even gnaw his metal arm off?"

"You know what, at this point I'm content enough to just let him try, and tease him mercilessly once he breaks all of his teeth."

"Ha, ha, _ha_\- Fuck you two. I'mma going to get free even if I have to sacrifice my new arm to do it." Bucky said in a sulky tone before falling silent for several seconds. Clint merely sniggered at them and was about to say something else when all of a sudden something made a weird, alarm like sound.

Bucky and Steve tensed up, upon hearing the strange sound while Clint just cocked his head a little bit and frowned. All previous humor left him anxiously shifting from foot to foot as the kid stirred a little bit and reluctantly released her hold on Steve's neck.

Allowing him to quickly jump up as she reached down to her keychain thingy and grabbed it as she cracked an eye open and scowled at the thing before then pushing herself into a sitting position on top of Bucky and digging out what looked like a cell.

Flicking it open, for a moment she pressed one of the buttons and a map popped up on the small screen. Frowning sleepily at it, she seemed to be so engrossed in what she was looking at that she didn't even seem aware of the men. Pressing a few more buttons, she muttered something inaudible and then slowly got to her feet and staggered off.

"I...think the kid's doing some sleepwalking, guys." Clint said hesitantly, with a frown on his face as Shion disappeared around the corner, doing some crazy shuffle/staggering thing like a damned zombie. The only thing missing now was the terrifying groaning and opening and closing of her mouth.

Then again since Sam and Scott had been watching a shit ton of zombie flicks lately, maybe that was a good thing. Especially since Scott tended to freak out at the mere sight of his own shadow.

"S-Should we tail her and make sure that she stays out of trouble?" Steve asked in a worried tone as Bucky made a weird sound in the back of his throat and glared daggers at Steve before saying,

"She finally let the two of us go and you want to trail her while she's sleepwalking?!" Steve and Clint both looked at him expectantly, and waited for the man to get to his feet before hearing him mutter darkly. "Like _that_ won't blow up in our faces." As he sighed and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and waited for the others to start walking before falling into step behind them.

Far, far,_ far_ behind them.

Call him crazy was he was super paranoid now that he was going to wind up grabbed for sleepy- time cuddles again. Not that there was actually anything wrong with sleepy-time cuddles. It was just...uncomfortable cuddling with someone who was both a girl and underage.

He was a man after all.

What if he was cuddled the wrong way and got, uh..._excited_? He just got free of Hydra after seventy years in captivity. He couldn't even recall the last time he'd even curled up next to another, warm, _female_ body.

Sure he sometimes cuddled up with Steve if he had a particularly bad nightmare or something. But whenever that happened it was like cuddling with a big, mentally regressed five year old.

And he usually wound up kicked out of the bed due to Steve's near constant flopping around.

Walking back inside of the palace, through the nearest door available, the three men paused for a moment to try and decide where the kid could have vanished too so quickly when Nat and Scott came from around a corner a little ways down the hall and started walking towards them.

"Hey guys!" Scott called out with a small wave.

"Hey Scott, hey Nat." Clint called back before asking in puzzlement, "Have either one of you seen the kid? We had her in our sights a little while ago but she shuffled off, sleepwalking and we're kind of a little bit concerned."

The two exchanged a look but were fast to deny seeing the girl any since the meeting earlier. And that had been hours ago. Close to four hours ago to be exact.

And the palace was fucking _huge_, so there was really no telling where she could have gone. Especially if she had been sleep walking or something.

"How about I help you guys look for her." Scott suggested as he paused several feet away from the three men. Steve and Clint thanked him for joining their ranks while Nat merely shrugged and said that she was going to go find T'Challa and see if he had learned anything new about the girl and then quickly left the men to their search.

* * *

T'Challa had just finished his video chat with Stark and sat back in his seat to mull over everything that he had learned about the girl and her abilities.

Tony hadn't been able to tell him much about the branch of the military that she worked for. Mainly because they were so top secret that no one _anywhere_ in the world knew anything about them at all. In Stark's words- the fuckers were practically a bunch of goddamned ghosts.

Neither the Japanese government, nor any other government in the whole wide world had any _real_ evidence of their existance or influence. Mainly because anyone stupid enough to get even remotely close to discovering them- usually wound up dead. Either from assassionation, or other causes.

Though he didn't go into any detail about what those other causes were.

He did however tell T'Challa that the only reason that he had managed to get his hands on the girl was because he had accidentally shot her during one of her last jobs and she'd gotten pissed enough to literally kick his armored ass all over the place while ripping his suit to pieces.

He then showed him the video of the altercation as well as then gave him an up close few pics of the damage she'd done to his suit, _with her bare hands_.

To say that the suit had been reduced to scrap, would be an gross understatement. An incredibly gross_ understatement. _

There was barely enough left of the armor to even fit in a shoe box. And the sheer amount of pure _physical_ strength it took to do something like that to an Ironman armor made by Stark, was beyond incredible. Especially since he had started to reinforce the metal to make it heavier and stronger and more durable than before.

By the time the video chat was finished, T'Challa was only sure of one thing...

The kid scared the hell out of him.

* * *

"Does anybody else feel like we're being followed?" Scott asked for the fifth time in some many minutes since he had joined the others in trying to find the kid. Clint looked back at him and rolled his eyes in response before saying,

"You're imagining things, Scott. There's no one following us. See- halls are clear. There's no one around but us."

"Yeah but-"

"I told you not to watch so many zombie movies," Steve said in a gentle, chiding tone. "They're making you paranoid."

"No they're not," Scott protested as he felt another chill go down his spine. "And I'm telling you that something is following us. I can feel it. It's...giving me the willies."

"Your crazy man, between me and the two super soldiers there isn't anyone dumb enough to-" Clint paused what he was saying as he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye and whipped his head around to see if he could catch it.

He didn't. But now he wasn't so sure that Scotts imagination was running away with him. "Uh...Cap."

"What is it Clint?" Steve asked in a slightly frustrated tone as he turned to see what was holding the former assassin up.

"I don't think Scotts making anything up anymore. Something is definitely following us."

"What? Like what?"

"I dunno, but whatever it is- it moves fucking fast." Clint said as he looked around the part of the hallway where he'd caught sight of the...thing in the first place. There was still no trace that anything had been there, but he couldn't seem to shake the sudden feeling of dread that seemed to settle in his gut as Steve craned his neck to look around him and frowned when he saw nothing.

_Great now Scott's insanity is rubbing off on Clint_. He thought in dismay. And they still haven't managed to locate the girl at all in the past forty or so minutes that they had been looking for her.

Just where the hell could she have wandered off anyways? He wondered when he heard a weird sound coming from where Bucky had been just a few feet away and whipped his head around just in time to see Bucky go down and something or _someon_e in black to start dragging the shell shocked man away from them at an inhuman speed.

Bucky finally seemed to gather his wits enough to let out a terrified scream as they all watched him get dragged down the hall- and holy shit- into a fucking vent! _What the hell?! _Steve wondered in alarm as he ran up to the vent, noting that it was too damned small for him to fit through. As it was he was wondering when Bucky had become a contortionist. Cause that had to be the only way that he could get into the stupid thing.

It was freaking tiny!

There were several bangs, some grunting, and some of what Steve recognized as some of Bucky's 'pissed off' swearing before there were a few more loud bangs and Bucky finally shouted,_ "Fine you want my fucking arm- Take the damn thing!" _

There was one more loud bang, almost as if flesh was slammed into the side of the vent or something and a few minutes later Bucky poked his head out of the vent looking like he was on the verge of a meltdown and looked up at Steve and wheezed out, "I-It took my arm..." Followed quickly by, "And I think I pissed myself."


	7. Chapter 7

An hour in a half after somehow managing to help Bucky out of the vent- Steve, Clint, Sam, Scott, and Natasha were all hanging out in the dining room waiting on T'Challa- watching the man pace back and forth like an angry beast. God, seeing Bucky like this was literally like watching the man's sanity unravel.

And Steve knew, deep, deep down that _whoever_ or _whatever_ had been dumb enough to take Bucky's arm was going to be in serious trouble the next time it showed itself around the palace.

Even more so if Bucky managed to get his hands on it.

"So...what was it that happened again?" Natasha asked for like the tenth time, earning a slow, yet no less _murderous_ look from Bucky as his pacing temporarily stopped for a moment. Just long enough for Nat to give him her most innocent smile even though everyone in the room knew that the woman was needling the- semi _deranged_ former Hydra assassin, for her own amusement.

Steve gave her a look meant to shut her down, but she tended to ignore him when she was messing with someone purely for entertainment purposes.

She did tend to get bored after all. And unlike the rest of them, reading, sparring, pranking, and watching days upon days upon days of endless zombie movies didn't keep her half as distracted as it did the rest of them. It must be a male vs. female thing.

Steve knew he and the guys were never _half_ as bored and restless as she was.

"Something attacked me!" Bucky practically shouted at her. "Do you see my fucking arm anywhere?! I don't! I'm pretty sure that whatever or whoever that was has taken it and left the frigging country by now!"

Clint rolled his eyes and pointed out, "Weren't you going to gnaw it off anyways?" Causing Nat to snort in amusement as Bucky all out _snarled _at the two.

It had only been half an hour since Steve and the others had helped Bucky get himself free of the vent, so there was no way anyone could make it through the countries customs in that amount of time. There was also no real purpose in stealing Bucky's arm and then leaving the country with it.

It wasn't that cutting edge as far as tech went.

And Steve had definitely seen better prosthetics in various parts of the world. So it wasn't as if Bucky's arm had a design or something that was worth smuggling out of the country.

"Calm yourself Sergeant Barnes," T'Challa said as he finally decided to join the rest of them before saying, "I can assure you that you're arm is safely still in the palace and probably will be for a while." Bucky wheeled on him like a rabid animal. He snapped and snarled like one too.

"Where?! Where is my arm?" Bucky demanded in an angry tone that nearly had Steve's hackles rising. Call him crazy but that was no way to talk to the man letting them live in his home.

"Bucky, calm down now."

"Fuck you Steve." The brunette growled in a loud rumbling tone as he eyed T'Challa.

"One moment and I will show you what I mean. As well as who has your arm- but you aren't allowed to go and retrieve it as of yet because I want you calm before you do. I'm not overly fond of blood being used to paint my walls." T'Challa said as he scrunched up his nose a little bit at the mere idea of blood being used to paint the various walls of his home a bright and vivid crimson red.

_Ick._

Using the AI system that his sister had created and connected to the palace, T'Challa pulled up a video of the thing that had attacked Bucky. Everyone's eyes went to the image out of curiosity. Well except for Bucky, the man was so hostile and spitting mad that he was trying to glare the video into exploding or something.

Truly his temper was a terrible thing. But it didn't seem to be helping him any right now.

In the image they saw the kid, Shion climb out of a vent, elsewhere in the palace with Bucky's metal wrist in her mouth. She replaced the grate on the vent. Using her long-ish fingernails to re screw it back into place on the wall before standing up and then taking the arm out of her mouth and staggering a few feet away, before then walking up the side of the wall to the ceiling where she just stood there.

Somehow mysteriously suspended upside down for several minutes before dropping back to the floor.

Landing lightly on the balls of her feet, and then staggering off a little bit further down the hall before simply flopping over onto the floor and rolling herself underneath a table where they could barely make out the girl curling her body around Bucky's arm and simply sleeping.

Steve couldn't seem to do anything but stare. While almost everyone else in the room flat out gaped. Well, again, except Bucky. He was still trying to make the video explode or something.

"You've got to be kidding me," Clint finally said after several moments of silence. "Her? She did that? She dragged a two hundred and sixty pound super soldier off, screaming like a little girl-"

"Hey! I didn't scream like a little girl!"

"Yes you did. It was literally something that will haunt my nightmares," Scott said with a shudder before turning to Nat and saying in a pleading tone. "Hold me." Which earned him a nice, hard smack upside the head and a few choice words spat at him in Russian as he quickly moved to escape her before she could smack him again.

"Okay so the kid took Bucky's arm..." Steve said slowly, a slight frown marring his features as the video ended.

"That is not all she has done. I managed to speak in length to Stark about the girl and found out some very interesting things both about her, and the military she serves."

"Really? Like what?" Clint asked as he propped his chin on one of his palms.

"I will show you. But first let us eat something for dinner. I fear that what I will show you may put some of you off of your meal."

"Is it really that bad?" Steve asked in a worried tone as Bucky's angry glaring seemed to slowly lessen bit by bit.

"It is not good." T'Challa said as he sat down and looked over the various articles of food on the table with a slight scowl. In truth he wasn't all that hungry himself after watching the video that Stark had shown him, but he couldn't seem to recall the last time he ate something so...he would probably have to choke something down or risk making himself ill.

Steve said nothing as he re took his seat and waited for Bucky to finally sit down so that they could all eat something before T'Challa showed them what he had managed to dig up. Glancing curiously at the king, Steve noted that the man didn't seem all that interested in much of anything.

Food, conversation- nothing. If anything he appeared to be distracted.

It...worried him.

Dinner ended much faster than T'Challa had anticipated that it would. In truth the dinners that he usually ate with the rogue Avengers tended to last an hour or longer. So the fact that everyone had managed to eat something and were now sitting in their seats waiting on him to polish off what was left of his food was telling.

Especially given the time it took everyone to finish.

Thirty minutes. A new record.

Finally deciding that he had dragged things out enough, he pushed his plate away and then pulled up the video that he had downloaded from Stark on his touch pad and fixed it so that everyone could see it clearly and then started to play it.

Letting them see everything from beginning to end.

The kids, the chaos that happened during the attack, saving the civilians, and then there was the _enemy_. Those horrifically malicious beings that attacked without reason or rhyme. The battle that ensued.

Even...

He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat as he stared down the only real evidence of the girl's nature. The horrifyingly shocking truth brought on by experiencing an instantly _fatal_, gaping wound to the chest. That seemed to have destroyed her heart, part of her spine, and a good portion of her torso along with the rest.

The gaping wound squirting blood high up into the air as she fell to the ground, _dead_.

Looking away from the scene, he took a moment to let his gaze flicker from one person to another, taking in the horror mirrored in each of their expressions as the video continued.

Showing the girl slowly pushing herself to her feet, her eyes- changing from the color that they were before- to an almost sinister looking gold on black as a bone mask slowly formed on her face.

The continued battled between her and her enemies. And then finally the end showing the mask shattering as she sank to her knees in the middle of the broken streets where she tiredly spoke,_ "I will protect..."_ Before finally falling and staying down for good this time as several of her friends made their way over to her side and took up defensive positions around her unconscious form.

Once the video ended, T'Challa then switched it over to something a little bit less horrible and began playing one of the other video's that he managed to dig up with Stark's help.

It wasn't something centered around combat or death or even heroics. Which was probably why he seemed to gravitate towards it so much. There was simply something about the one he was now playing was only one of the ones that he had managed to find that struck a chord in him.

It was an video of the girl on a stage, dressed in a nice black pant's suit. Her long hair had been pulled back away form her face and carefully styled in a twist at the back of her head. Leaving her long bangs to hang down in and frame her face as she bowed to the audience and then turned to move over to the large piano that was sitting behind her and sat down and slowly began to play it.

She played her chosen piece of classical Beethoven beautifully. Almost as if she had been doing it for years. And she even managed to follow it up with a few other songs from, Chopin, Debussy, and Mozart.

And then at the end of her performance, once she had stepped off of the stage with a huge grin on her face. She was tackled to the floor with an indignant squawk by two small kids. Both of whom were girls if their hair and clothing was any indication at all.

The two kids were hyped. Having enjoyed the show so much that they were both talking at once as Shion merely laughed and patted them both on the head before whispering that she'd buy them both some burgers on the way home.

The two kids cheered and let her go long enough to start jumping around in excitement as a man in his early forties walked up and tried to hug the girl before being dealt with swiftly by an sharp elbow to the face before Shion collected the kids and started walking away.


	8. Chapter 8

Once the last video ended, everyone seemed to have recovered enough to start firing off questions. Most of which revolved around the concept of the first video being staged. After all, no one could take such a terrible wound, and wind up with half of their chest, organs, and bones missing- and live.

And the second most question that seemed to be in need of answering was; Shion had actually _died_ right?

Both of which T'Challa confirmed before then telling the rogues that the video of the fighting had been authenticated by Stark. Who had also shared some_ probably-not-so-impossible-now,_ theories about just how powerful the girl really was.

One such theory was that she was something greater than a super soldier.

Or at least something along those line.

This theory of course made both Steve and Bucky somewhat nervous/concerned since the two serum's that had been used to create them both should _never_ have been replicated, much less used on another person, in the first place.

And then there was Starks second theory- that the girl was an alien. Possibly Asgardian in nature. Go figure.

The third theory was that she had been born with the X-gene, and at some point between coming into contact with the military she worked for and shortly after joining, that she had been experimented on in various ways with super soldier serum, alien tech/DNA, some genetic splicing, ect.

However T'Challa was leaning more towards _something_ else. Of course this piece of inspiration didn't actually occur to him until he went to see what his sister had been up too before dinner, and caught her watching the American TV show, Danny Phantom.

What if the girl, Shion was a Halfa?

A being of such unfathomable power that she wasn't entirely human or anything else. But instead she straddled the fence between being two very separate things.

He waited for everyone to calm themselves a little bit before voicing his thoughts, hoping that they wouldn't laugh at him. After all, he _had_ his reasons for thinking this especially after seeing the battle video.

Especially since he knew that _no_ mere mortal being could do the things that Shion had done and walked away practically untouched, more or less.

Upon voicing his thoughts on Shion and the origin of her power, Scott practically started vibrating in his seat from excitement as he picked up T'Challa's theory and began to run with it with a bunch of scientific jargon that almost no one in the room even understood with the exception of a simple word or two here and there.

Which was followed by a defensive sounding, "What?" When he realized that everyone was staring at him like he was insane. "It _could_ happen. After all there are things in this universe that are...ageless, timeless, and as powerful as gods- just because we've never encountered one before now- doesn't mean that they aren't out there. And to be honest, if the kid is a halfa, then it would make sense how we've never seen or met anyone like her before. If T'Challa's theory is right- then nothing like her would have ever been recorded in text, or any other record known to man."

"Think about it! She's human enough to blend in, go to school, make friends. And she's.._.inhuman_ enough to survive fatal wounds to her body. Possibly over and over and _over_ again. I mean, can you even imagine what that could mean? For all we know she isn't even a kid. What if she's an immortal? Or a demi god or something? What if the fighting that took place in that video that T'Challa showed us a few minutes ago- was a dispute over territory due to her inhuman half? I mean, we already know that she isn't one hundred percent human, so it's not entirely outside of the realm of possibility. Right?"

Everyone but T'Challa looked either disturbed by the thought of what Scott had just pointed out or worried at the prospect.

"How do we know if she's safe to be around?" Clint asked after a length of time.

"Well, from a scientific standpoint that would depend on several different things. How human she is vs. inhuman. How she perceives threats. How she reacts to threats. What kind of morals she was raised with...uh...assuming that she even had a family to raise her in the first place. How old she really is. Nature vs. nurture. What kind of likes and dislikes she has, ect…"

"Is that all?"

"No. But it's all that I can think of at the moment."

"Is there another way to tell if she's safe to be around?" Steve asked curiously.

"As a matter of fact I believe there is," T'Challa finally said as he pulled something up on his touchpad and fixed it so that he could show the others. "Look here." He said as several images of the girl's face popped up in front of them. "Look at her eyes. The color differs from situation to situation. From what Stark was able to tell me before, she was born with warm amber colored eyes with a coppery tint to them around the outer rims. In the images taken earlier today after her arrival, her eyes are neon blue rimmed in turquoise. Now in the video, if you look closely enough, her eyes are gold on black. I suspect that when her eyes are gold on black it is when she feels the most threatened. I think that blue is a...neutral color meaning that she isn't feeling hostile, merely on guard. And the warm amber is when she is at peace."

"How accurate is you're theory?"

"Not terribly. But then we could simply try asking her. There is no true guarantee that she will answer the question truthfully. But then again, trust goes both ways- and I have the distinct impression that she needs us to trust her."

"Well if she wants me to trust her- then she shouldn't have taken my fucking arm!"

"Still pissed about that huh, Barnes?"

"Yes!"

"I have a little bit of a theory about that," Scott said almost nervously, as if what he was about to say was going to set everyone off and he wanted to avoid the fallout. "What if the reason that she took your arm is directly linked to her inhuman half?"

Bucky opened his mouth to growl something but was cut off by Steve placing a hand over his mouth, earning a slant eyed glare from the man as the blond said, "Go on."

"Well...we may not know exactly how her mind works and all. But one thing has been very evident since she got here. She's a predator. A damned good one too. She blends in, can lull people into a false sense of security. One that doesn't even consider us- two super soldiers, a couple of former assassins, a guy that can literally turn into a giant at will, and pardon my pun- cat guy- as blips on her fucking radar. That alone should tell us several things about her. Things like us not being a threat to her. She feels secure enough to turn her back to all of us instead of watching our every move. She walks so silently that she makes no sound at all... Need I go on?"

"Okay now, consider this. Despite being no threat to her, some of her inhuman behavior and instincts probably manifest themselves in strange and very interesting ways. Taking your arm might have been similar to hunting to her. Or it could have even been a sort of playful behavior that she normally doesn't get to indulge in due to her job. I mean, it wasn't like she actually injured you any. And then there is the other stuff..."

"The cuddling..." Bucky muttered darkly before tacking on, "I feel so betrayed."

"The choke hold that she used on me?" Steve questioned, ignoring Bucky completely which earned him a swift and vicious kick to the side of his ankle. "Ow! Shit, Bucky- what the hell?!"

"You should listen when someone is whining." Bucky hissed as Steve absently rubbed his sore ankle and snapped,

"Maybe I would if you'd stop acting like a woman on the rag."

"Okay, as entertaining as it is to see the super soldiers de evolving into children and sissy fighting, lets move on shall we."

"Uh...right. So where were we?"

"Inhuman behavior manifestations." Clint supplied helpfully.

"Right. So-"

"The wall walking and ceiling hanging." Natasha point out.

"Are all perfectly normal _inhuman_-like behavior for her. Although until we're a hundred percent sure about just how inhuman she is and how her non human abilities and such manifest, she definitely bears watching." Scott finally managed to finish with a nod of his head.

* * *

Awareness came back to Shion rather quickly despite her need for rest, followed by the unnerving annoyance that had sent many a powerful being scurrying for cover. Rolling herself over onto her back, she didn't bother stifling the big yawn that popped her jaw.

Nor did she really care all that much if anyone nearby saw her sharper than normal canine teeth, and freak out because the way that she yawned made them look _longer_ and more _vicious_ than they actually were.

Cracking an eye open, she looked around for a moment before muttering to herself in confusion. Just what the hell was she doing sleeping on the floor? In a hallway? Underneath a flimsy looking wooden table with..._was that a fucking severed arm?! _

"What the-" She started to say as she sat up and held the gleaming metal arm out in front of her by one of the fingers with a thoroughly disgusted look on her face. "I...hope that I didn't accidentally eat anyone..." It wasn't that she was all that hungry anyways, but somehow if she had eaten someone and all that was left of them was an arm- somehow the words 'my bad' however apologetic they may sound, simply wouldn't cover the extent of the damage done.

In fact if she did happen to eat someone- she was pretty sure that a lynch mob would be after her. Then again...maybe she was sleeping in a hallway, underneath a table, in an effort to hide from them?

Sighing tiredly she got up off of the floor, absently tucking the arm underneath one of her own and took a moment to check her surroundings a little bit better.

There were only a few energy signatures that even appeared remotely familiar to her. Everyone else was spread out like they were giving the area that she was in a wide berth. All of them felt strangely calm though.

No one aside from one energy signature seemed to be even a little bit angry.

Taking that as a...semi good thing, she decided to go and track the people down and started walking. She walked for the better part of fifteen minutes before finally reaching the room where everyone was gathered, and quietly grasped the handle on the door and slid it open just a tad and peeked her head inside.

Automatically everyone that had been talking fell silent and everyone as one, turned to look in her direction. Causing her to glower at the lot of them and say aloud enough for them to hear, "Well, that's not the least bit _ominous_."

"Miss Kurosaki, please come in and join us," T'Challa said kindly, noting the way that the girl flinched slightly at the invitation before slowly pushing the door open further so that she could slip inside of the room. "If you are hungry, there is still plenty of food on the table."

"Um...thanks... Speaking of food- I-I didn't- I mean- Are any of you missing someone? A friend? Family member?" Everyone gave her a funny look before she managed to stutter out, "I-I don't know where this arm came from and I'm sort of freaking out-"

_"Oh."_ Everyone said in unison as Bucky stood up and stomped over to her and snatched the arm from her.

"Gimme that you brat."

"O-Oh, you mean it's yours?" Shion asked curiously earning a dark glare from Bucky before she quickly moved away from him and went to the chair furthest from everyone else sitting at the table and sat down. "Sorry far asking." She muttered in a sulky tone as T'Challa collected a few plates and dishes, still heavy laden with food and moved them down to her end of the table before then reseating himself in one of the seats next to her.

"Um...w-why are you-"

"It is considered polite to speak to someone when you are close to them, yes?"

"Well, in my experience sitting close to someone can mean any number of things. Not all of which are good." Shion said in a very low tone that only he could hear.

"Is that so? Like what, if you don't my asking?"

"Well... Uh, I guess it really depends on the person and what they want to accomplish."

"Ah, I see. And what if I merely want to ask you some questions to get to know you better?"

"Well that's...understandable."

"And would you answer my questions if I asked them?"

"I may not be able to answer everything. But I can try." Shion replied uneasily. T'Challa noted that he was beginning to make her nervous and decided to start with small questions to slowly ease her into things. After all, even the smallest bit of information could mean a lot in the long run.

"Very well. Let's start with something small. What are you exactly?"

"That's a small question to you?" She asked, sounding somewhat appalled.

"It is the one most in need of answering at the moment. We have already established that you are both human and non human in nature. But nothing else beyond that aside from a bunch of theories."

"Are you a halfa?" Scott called out from his spot at the other end of the table.

Shion took a moment to think on the questions before simply replying, "In a manner of speaking, I'm more of a half breed."

"A halfa! Woo-hoo!" Scott cheered causing T'Challa to look at the man as if he had lost his mind while Natasha silenced him with a smack to the back of the head before he fell silent again as the king said in an encouraging tone.

"Go on child."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure how to have Shion explain things to them. So...   
Just roll with it.

T'Challa felt encouraged by the girl's willingness to talk and let his curiosity take the reigns as he waited for her to enlighten them all on what she had been saying before about being a Halfa/half breed.

Finally she hummed and her neon blue eyes seemed to glow a little bit as she slowly said, "I think...it would be better to simply show you. And for that purpose I think I have something in one of my bags that could help. It's basically a video recorder, but it can only pick up specific things on certain frequencies. Which is pretty neat. Especially since it's supposed to cut down on paperwork back home. D-Do you know where my room is so that I can go get it?"

"If it will help answer some of our questions then I see no reason to deny you're request. How about you fix yourself a plate of food and we will all go with you to get it."

"Uh... I-Is that so?"

T'Challa nodded and the girl muttered something to herself and then quickly fixed herself a plate piled high with food and then stood up and motioned with her head for everyone to come. She got out the door before actually seeming to realize that she didn't know where exactly her room was and hesitantly asked which way she was supposed to go.

Earning a snigger of amusement from several of the others as T'Challa patted her on the shoulder and moved to walk ahead of her a little bit.

Ten minutes later, T'Challa, Shion and the rest of the rogue Avengers stepped into the living quarters that he'd had set up for her before her arrival.

Moving out of the girl's way as she walked further into the spacious living room/kitchen/dining room area, where he watched as she set her plate of food down. And then hurried into her bedroom and started digging around in her bags while the rest of them moved to make themselves comfortable.

T'Challa was just sitting down when he heard a thud coming from the bedroom that sounded suspiciously like the kid's body hitting the floor, quickly followed by several barely audible oaths before she finally returned with something small in her hands.

"Are you alright?" Steve asked the second that she moved into his line of sight. "That sounded like a nasty fall."

"Oh, I'm fine. I just...accidentally startled myself with this thing in an effort to make sure that it was what I was looking for. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think someone I know somehow managed to repack one of my bags as a semi joke or something. The stupid thing is full of nothing but weapons and weird gadgets I've never seen before in my life!"

Steve blinked at her reply and then pasted on his usual, polite smile and let the girl set up the device. "Let me see...settings, settings- oh! Here they are!" She said with a grin as she pressed a button and a large image in HD appeared directly in front of them.

_"Hey, what is that thing?"_ Shion asked curiously as she eyed something with a dubious expression on her face.

_"It's a video recorder. Urahara gave it to me to record some of the stuff you get yourself into since you tend to get yourself into trouble often." _

_"Is that so?" _

_"Yup! It's also supposed to cut down on the amount of paperwork I'll have to do back home."_

_"O-kay. I guess that makes sense. Since I sort of broke Soul Society and all." _

_"I know right! How does a mere human- however powerful manage to destroy another dimension in the first place!" _The person known as Rukia, practically shouted.

_"I wouldn't know. I don't think I was even trying to break the place. But I do know that that recorder is more about keeping track of me than it is cutting down on paperwork."_

_"What? No- that's not-" _

_"Don't lie, Rukia. You suck at it. Besides, I'm not mad about it. Soul Society would be stupid to allow me to run around practically unchecked after I broke the place. Any number of things could happen if they don't keep an eye on me." _Shion said as she leaned back in her seat before seeming to realize that she was still being recorded. And made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat before saying in an annoyed tone. _"Now, put that thing away- I'm trying to do homework and it's distracting." _

_"Huh? How is it distracting? I'm recording from behind you. Not in your face." _

_"Just turn the damned thing off. I can't concentrate on this stuff if you're going to be recording my potential academic failure." _

_"You're not going to fail, Ichigo. You understand that advanced college level stuff way better than I do. Especially for someone your age." _

_"That's because I don't want to be even more of a failure to my family and flunk out of school. It isn't like I always have a lot of free time to study, now is it." _

_"You better not be about to say what I think you are-" _The other girl's voice growled out. Shion turned her head a little bit and gave a smirk.

_"What? You mean about how you gave me your power and now I'm doing you're job?" _

_"Those are fighting words you brat!"_

Shion set aside her books and papers and turned to face Rukia and gave her a playful grin as she taunted, _"And just what are you going to do about it you midget?" _

The video cut out when the person recording jumped on Shion, who let out a sudden yelp before it went dark. The next scene appeared almost a heartbeat later.

In it Shion was wearing a traditional black shihakusho. Her long orange-ish colored hair was tied back in a high top ponytail, and she had a massive sword as long as she was tall, and as wide as her torso.

_"Everyone knows the plan right?" _There were a small chorus of 'yes's and a series of 'let's get on with it' as Shion turned her head to look at something over her shoulder before saying, _"Okay. One last thing before we go- Don't any of you dare die!" _

The rest of the scenes that followed consisted of mid air battles over a city. The fighting on the ground below consisting of some school kids, and the chaos that followed.

Each video was...like watching soldiers on the front line in the middle of a war zone. It was both _incredible_ and_ unbelievable_.

They saw_ everything_.

Shion and her friends.

Her family. Her father and twin younger sisters.

Her home town and it's people. All of the fights, all of the pain, and all of the sorrow.

But perhaps one of the most interesting and telling video's they saw was the recording of Senna. A girl that existed only because of the power of something called the Shienju.

They saw Shion try to protect her, even from her comrades- how she tried to protect the world as a collective whole. The battles that were fought in a place called the Valley of Screams. How two very separate worlds were about to collide and be destroyed as well as Shion's last few moments with the girl who wasn't a girl.

They saw Shion confirm that Senna had once lived as the girl faded from existence. Leaving Shion to mourn her alone in the cemetery while she bled.

By the time the video's stopped playing, it was early morning and Shion had long since conked out again after eating her dinner at the dinning room table and though T'Challa wanted to move her to the bedroom so that she would be more comfortable, Scott was the one who insisted on leaving her where she was since she was already sleeping so deeply.


	10. Chapter 10

Early the next morning, Shion was awoke by the sound of her cell going off like an alarm. Jerking herself upright, she blinked sleep blurred eyes at the far wall of her quarters and frowned for a moment before recalling last night's events.

Right, okay. The humans had been curious about _what_ she is, and just _what_ she could do.

And for their own safety and wellbeing- she had decided to let them find out _specific_ things about her by using the video recorder/player device that Urahara had invented to pick up on her...Soul Reaper activities. After which they...had apparently left her alone to drool on the table she was sleeping on.

_Awesome._

Reaching up, she quickly wiped any and all traces of drool from her face and then reached for her phone to see why it was going off like it was. Flicking it open, she stared at the screen for a moment and then swore.

The text on the screen was from Chad.

**Chad: _Found you._**

Blinking as she read the message, her mind didn't seem to register what she was seeing for several seconds before her phone started to ring. Jumping a little bit at the suddenness of the sound startling her, she frowned down at it as she checked the ID number and rolled her eyes when she realized it was Stark's number.

Pressing the button, she started to put the phone up to her ear when she heard him shouting from the other end of the line and inwardly cringed a little bit at the volume of his voice before managing to finally put the phone up to her ear.

"What the fucking hell?! How did this happen? How- No scratch that- Who did this to Friday? I want answers! I want them now! Well kid?"

"Um..."

"You're a brilliant conversationalist kid. Really, you are. Now tell me who the fuck hacked Friday's system and managed to find out where you are?"

"Um..."

She heard Stark make a strangled sound in the back of his throat and then heard him snap, "Thanks for the help,_ not_." And then hang up.

Pulling her phone away form her ear, she scowled at it this time as another text appeared on her screen.

**Orihime: Chad's really upset with you for disappearing into thin air. So is Rukia for that matter. They and Uryu all attacked poor Mr. Urahara and forced him to track you down. I'm healing his bruises as we speak. **

"The hell?" Shion muttered as another text flashed across her screen and almost groaned.

**Rukia: You're dead you brat!**

**Chad: We're coming to you. ** **Don't you dare bother running. Between myself, Rukia and Uryu being all kinds of pissed- we _will_ hunt you down. **

Shion whimpered and lay her head back on the table as she stared at the screen blankly for several moments before muttering to herself. "My life is over..." And then texted Chad back.

**Ichigo: You come. **

**Leave the midget and the weird guy with glasses back home to keep an eye on Orihime and my family. I won't bother running if it's just you. Besides, as much as I miss everyone. I trust you far more at the moment than them.**

**Chad: Fair enough. See you in a few hours.**

**Ichigo: I'll be here.**

**Chad: You better.**

Shion sighed and lifted her head up off of the table and wiped her face again. This time in a habit to try and dispel some of the feeling of dread that had settled in the center of her chest.

Once she felt the feeling ease up some, she slowly pushed herself to her feet and slipped away from the table to go and shower and change her clothing before she went to go see if she could find the king and speak to him about Chad coming to Wakanda for an unknown length of time.

She doubted that he would mind overly much if one of her friends showed up. But even so, he should at least be _asked_ for permission first and be given a heads up. After all, it was just plain rude to drop in and just expect to be able to stay with someone who didn't know you. Especially without any kind of warning.

After showering (oh my god- her bathroom was fucking_ huge_!) Shion dressed herself in a fresh pair of cotton leggings, and a navy blue sweater dress that fell all the way to her knees, and a pair of black soft leather shoes. After which she braided her long hair and then decided to go see if anyone else was awake.

If so then maybe someone could point her in the right direction to find the king.

Leaving her room, she silently made her way to the dining room from last night, and peeked in because she could sense some people inside. She was pleasantly surprised to find the king and a few others sitting there talking. Though she didn't exactly know what they were talking about.

Knocking lightly on one of the doors, she watched as all conversation abruptly stopped, again. Just like it had last night as everyone present turned their eyes towards her. One of the guys in the room practically jumped out of his seat and almost tripped over his own feet moving from the table over to the door where she was standing.

"You're up! Come in, come in. We were just talking about some of the stuff we learned about you last night-" The guy said cheerfully as he motioned for her to come into the room.

"Right," She muttered as she watched the guy somewhat warily. He looked like he was about to vibrate out of his skin or something. "That's not ominous at all."

"Nope. Not the least bit ominous." The guy chirped with a wide toothy grin as she slowly inched her way past him and made a beeline for safety. And hopefully someone _sane_.

"Morning," She greeted as she stole the guy's chair and seated herself in it so that she was seated next to T'Challa who looked over at her in surprise as his friend sputtered out,

"Hey that's my seat!"

"You got up."

"Yeah, but it's still my seat!"

"Pretty sure that your name isn't on it."

T'Challa was trying his hardest not to laugh at this point. And the others were both watching and listening to the exchange between the girl and Scott with avid interest.

"B-But-"

"Listen, do you want me to throw a chair at your head?" Shion deadpanned without looking at him. Scott paused his argument with her for a moment. Just long enough to really consider whether or not she'd actually do it while Clint started to chant in a whisper tone,

"Do it, do it, do it..."

"Dude! Just what do you have against me?" Scott all but shouted at Clint in alarm. Clint just grinned evilly at him and then continued to chant until Shion rolled her eyes at the immaturity and picked up a piece of fruit and abruptly stuffed it into Clint's mouth mid chant. Causing the man to flail and jerk back in his seat so violently that he and the chair both fell and hit the floor.

At which point T'Challa finally lots the fight to stay somber and started to laugh in amusement. Between her exchange with Scott and what she had just done to Clint, he couldn't keep a straight face anyways. It was as if she picked up on some imaginary 'jester' vibe between the two men and simply fell into the same rhythm that they seemed to have whenever they were around one another.

It was funny. Weird. But funny just the same.

Finally he seemed to settle down, at which point the girl decided to ask him something. "I'm sorry to spring this on you so suddenly, T'Challa, sir. But my friends back home have finally figured out that I'm not in the country and one of them has decided that he is going to be coming here. And I was wondering if that would be okay because I have no idea how long he is planning to stay?"

T'Challa was silent for a moment as he considered her words before then asking, "Is he one of you're friends with special abilities?"

"Um...yes."

"And what is his purpose for coming here?" He asked curiously.

"I'm assuming that he's coming here to keep me out of trouble. Plus if he decides to stay more than a few days, then he would be useful to have around in the event of any kind of threat or conflict. You could think of him as an added measure of security."

"Would he cause trouble?"

"Chad? _God no_. The only kind of trouble you'd be likely to have out of him is how many village children might decide to climb on him or have him give them piggy back rides around the village or something. Chad's...a big guy, and he can come across as intimidating. Because he's really quiet. But he's...a lot like an overgrown teddy bear. Nice, ya know?"

T'Challa did know. But it was nice to have her assurance just the same.

"How long have you known him?"

"Since he first moved back to japan after his grandpa's death. We were in middle school then."

"So it's been a few years?"

"Yeah."

"Very well. I will have a room set up for him."


	11. Chapter 11

The day of Shion's friend's arrival, she was a nervous bundle of energy. _Literally_.

She had already asked Natasha to help her figure out what to wear and to maybe do her hair for her. Because apparently she wanted to look nice when her friend finally showed up to stomp her ass into the ground.

Whatever that meant.

At the moment Nat was sitting on Shion's bed watching the girl anxiously go through every single article of clothing that she had bought the day before. It was mostly just shirts and jeans. But she had one or two nice dresses/skirt suits in there.

Though none of it was actually what Nat considered to be nice-nice. But she supposed that Shion wasn't as fashionably inclined as most females were.

She tended to like the girl next door look to the fem fatale. And that was fine since Nat wasn't sure how T'Challa or any of the others would react to having the girl run around looking like a high class hooker.

Though it might be a little bit funny to watch Steve and Bucky revert to their more gentlemanly selves. God knew that Scott was already acting like the poor kid was his own cub. Why just last night at dinner he had asked Sam if he had birthing hips.

Several people had choked on their food, while others had merely looked at the man as if he had grown another head. Poor Steve had felt his masculinity was somehow in immediate danger because of the weird turn in conversation, and had grabbed Bucky and left to go...do _manly_ things.

Nat presumed that was slang for scratching themselves somewhere questionable or going out hunting some poor helpless animal for funsies.

Blinking as another piece of clothing was tossed at her, she almost just let it fall over her head instead of absently catching it in her hand and placing it in the steadily growing pile of clothing.

"Maybe I should just wear the navy-"

"No."

"The red?"

"It clashes with your hair."

"T-The pink-"

"Is a possibility but that is all." Nat deadpanned as the teen made a frustrated sound and then flopped over on her back on the floor and just laid there for a moment. Leaving Nat to wonder if she was going to start throwing a tantrum like Clint sometimes did when he had to have help dressing himself up for an assignment.

However the girl surprised her by not doing so. She was more mature than she seemed. Probably even more than most of the males living in the palace with them.

_Fantastic._ It would be nice to have another female around to joke and scoff at the menfolk with.

"Then what should I wear?"

Nat absently picked up a random shirt and tossed it to the girl who caught it and blinked owlishly at the material before asking, "Seriously? Black."

"It goes with everything."

"So does white."

"White get's stained too easily, I gave up on it _ages_ ago."

Huffing slightly, the kid nodded her head reluctantly and stood up to go put the shirt on. As far as nice stuff went, it wasn't too nice. After all if the girl's friend was likely pissed enough to try knocking her around then it simply wouldn't do to give her something that couldn't easily be replaced.

The shirt that she had given her was nice enough. It had some beaded sequins around the collar and the sleeves in the shapes of flowers. And...it sparkled some. Which in Nat's opinion was far more practical than anything cotton or silk. Which was a win-win in her book.

Once the girl put the shirt on and finally returned, Nat forced her to seat herself on the bed next to her and turned her body to face her so that she could style her hair for her.

She didn't think the kid would like anything too complicated or intricate. So she settled on a partial french braid. The style was flattering on the kid. She had the most perfect bone structure that she'd ever seen on a girl her age before. It made Nat almost envious of her.

Once she was done, she tied Shion's hair back with a navy blue ribbon that she'd had hidden on her and then stood once she was done to study her work.

The kid looked _adorable_ if she did say so herself.

Hopefully her cuteness would make her friend think twice about dirtying her clothing and messing up her hair. Though if he still did it- Nat would be sorely tempted to put her foot up his ass.

"Alright, you're ready to go." She said. Shion jumped up and hugged her, catching the former assassin off guard before she let her go and ran for the door.

_Kids_, Nat thought in amusement as she heard Shion shouting for people to get in the damned car and snorted out a laugh.

* * *

An hour later-

T'Challa, Steve, Bucky, Clint, Nat, Sam and Scott all sat across from the kid watching her fidget as the limo pulled up to the private landing pad where they were to pick up her friend. It was plain to see that she was so nervous that it was a wonder that she hadn't had a panic attack or fainted already.

She kept shifting around, clicking her fingernails, worrying her bottom lip and looking out the car window. Even her breathing pattern had changed, they noted that she would take several breaths and then stop for a minute and then start breathing again.

"Are you ready to greet your friend?" T'Challa asked once the vehicle had parked, his hand was already hovering over the door.

"I...yeah. Yeah. I-I'm ready."

"Very well." T'Challa said as he opened the door and motioned for Shion to go on and step out of the car. She moved much faster than someone stooped over should have, nearly knocking him back into Scott who yelped in alarm. Fearing he was about to be squashed and then tried to climb into Clint's lap as a means of escape before getting himself flicked on the ear, _hard_, in reprimand as he turned his head just in time to see a tall, muscular guy decked out in torn black jeans and a white t-shirt and black biker boots step off of the plane.

"Holy mother-" Clint started to say but was cut off by Nat saying in disbelief,

"Of god- Fuck he's a fricking _giant_!"

Shion glanced back at the lot of them that were still in the car as Steve finally managed to join her and Bucky and T'Challa outside of the vehicle as Chad cleared the steps and made a direct beeline towards her. His expression a peculiar combination of worry, fury, and grim determination as he set his sights on Shion.

Finally coming to a stop several feet away from them, yet well within reaching distance. T'Challa had to crane his neck to get a good look at the teen before cutting a questioning glance back towards Shion. Her words from before slithering through his mind.

_He's a teddy bear._

He didn't look like a damned teddy bear.

He looked all manner of menacing, and evil-ish. Everything about the girl's friend practically screamed, _Threat, threat, **threat**! _And made him want to scramble for some kind of weapon in which to defend himself with.

However he simply stood there, trying to decide on whether or not he should trust Shion's assurances as the giant finally spoke. "Ichigo," Dear lord even the boy's voice was all full of menace! T'Challa thought warily as the teen then said, "You and I will be having a long, long conversation about your disappearing act as well as other things."

"Huh?"

"Don't bother playing dumb, you _know_ what I'm talking about." The giant said with a pointed glance down at Shion's stomach. T'Challa caught the look that the giant gave the girl and felt his eyes widen in realization and shock at what the giant was implying as he twisted his head around just in time to catch the dark glare that the girl gave her friend.

A look that promised all kinds of hellish torture if he didn't_ shut his damned mouth_.

It was a look that he recognized well, since he got it from his sister often enough while growing up. Thankfully she had almost grown out of doing terrible things to him when he tended to overstep himself now that he was king, and they were both adults.

Huffing quietly, Shion merely shook her head but said nothing as the giant politely greeted T'Challa and the others. After which everyone then piled back into the limo, across from Shion and her friend whom had chosen to seat himself next to her and draped an arm across the back of the seat behind her and seemed to be waiting for something.

Puzzled by the young man's behavior, everyone was quietly speculating over what had him so...upset when he finally chose to say something.

That something, of course, was rather disconcerting considering that his words were, "Lock the doors." Followed quickly by the angrily growled out words, _"Why didn't you tell me?" _

"I don't want to talk about this Chad." Shion said in a warning tone that had everyone almost squirming in their seats.

"Well too fucking bad, we're talking about this."

"No."

_"Yes."_

"I said no-"

"If nothing else they deserve to know; that you shouldn't be here for whatever you were sent here to do."

"It's no one's business-"

_"Well I think it is if I'm going to wind up burying my best friend!"_ The giant snarled, his lips peeling back from his teeth to show off a wicked set of super sharp pearly white fangs.

The kid sighed and looked away from her giant...frenemy? for a moment before gritting out, "_Fine_. Which part do you want to talk about?"

"How about the measures that will need to be taken to keep you and the kid from being dissected."

_Dissected?_ T'Challa's mind latched onto the word and he tensed up a little bit at the thought of the girl being strapped down and hacked to pieces. It was...painful to think on overly much. Though he didn't really understand why.

"Sounds good. What kind of ideas do you have?"

"For starter's you're going to have to get married," Chad said as he cut a glance her way to gauge her reaction to his suggestion. She merely blinked and looked...more than a little bit _uncomfortable _at the prospect of tying her life to another persons. "The added protection of having a husband, plus a father figure for the baby will be not only necessary. But useful in the long run."

"Oh. Well that's nice and all but do you have an idea who would be crazy enough to-"

"I have several takers. All of whom have been informed of your situation and are more than willing to make the sacrifice." The giant said in a gentler tone that sounded almost teasing. His lips curling up in a the barest hint of a smile as he then said, "Some of the older captian's among the Soul Reaper ranks. Kenpachi has been scaring people shitless declaring himself your future exicutioner."

Shion sighed in relief and muttered something about dodging that bullet as her friend continued speaking.

"Not that that has stopped anyone else from offering. They know that both you're current condition and you're new situation is rather..._precarious_. Aside from Kenpachi there has also been Toshiro." Shion made a weird choking sound but didn't say anything. Instead she merely stared at her friend wide eyed in utter horror.

"Rukia's squad captain is a decent guy. He isn't sure how much longer he'll live though with his illness. And he has always wanted a family. So...if you decide on him, I think he'd be a good match for you."

"Urahara has also offered for your hand. Though I'm not really all that sure why since the man is practically a sadist," Shion must have agreed with him, because she just turned this sickly green-ish color and made a strained gurgling sound and started to look more than a little bit nauseous before she finally couldn't take it anymore, and screamed at the same exact moment Chad reached over and placed a hand over her mouth, muffling the panicked sound. Once she finished screaming, Chad just dropped his hand from her mouth and tugged her against his side and muttered, "Calm down and breathe, Ichigo."

"You calm down and breathe!" Shion finally snapped at him as she tried, and failed to push herself away from him. But dammit, Chad was too fucking heavy- and stubborn- to be moved. "Dammit Chad this sucks!" Shion suddenly started sobbing.

"You can face down entire armies wielding god-like power, without any kind of help whatsoever, and yet the mere thought of being _both_ a mother and a wife reduces you to tears. Un-fucking-believable." Chad muttered with an expression of utter disbelief on his face as she buried her face against his side and refused to move so much as a muscle for the rest of the ride back to the palace.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I did the explination below very well.   
So- sorry!

The moment that the limo pulled up to the palace, Shion practically peeled herself from Chad's side and flung herself out of the vehicle before it even stopped moving. Almost taking Nat out with her if the woman's startled yelp was anything to go by.

The kid turned briefly, maybe to check and make sure that she hadn't actually injured anyone in her haste to flee and visibly cringed before she ran off. Presumably to hide herself away somewhere from further humiliation and chastisement. At which point Bucky finally managed to find his voice and asked, "So she's really-"

"Yes."

"But she's fourteen!" He practically shouted in disbelief. Steve didn't seem to be handling the news of the kids pregnancy any better. He was sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of disappointment on his face before deciding to add his two cents to the conversation.

"I didn't take her for someone so...irresponsible."

Chad glared at the two and bared his teeth in an angry snarl before slowly biting out the words._ "She. Isn't."_ From between clenched teeth.

"Then how the hell did she wind up in the family way if she isn't fucking irresponsible?!" Chad didn't feel the need to dignify Steve's stupid question with any kind of verble response.

He just glared at the man until his righteous anger slowly drained away right along with his poor fucking judgement of Ichigo's character. Contrary to what the man was currently thinking, Ichigo was as far from a slut as anyone could get. Most days she didn't even seem to realize that she was a _female_ at all. Period.

The man looked positively ill by the time Chad finally looked away from him again.

Of course by this time the rest of them had managed to figure out at least _part_ of the reason for the girl's odd, frantic behavior and were looking more than a little bit _ill_ themselves. With the exception of T'Challa, Bucky, Nat and Clint. All of those people at that very moment looked a nice combination of both _ill_ and _murderous_.

"Shit." Clint muttered in dismay as he scrubbed his face with his hands. Beside him, Nat merely quietly nodded her head in agreement.

"So what now?" Steve finally managed to ask around the odd lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. He felt badly for jumping to conclusions about the girl's character, especially when he hadn't had any of the facts on how she wound up in her condition.

"Like I said, she needs to choose someone to marry. It's... I get that an arranged marriage isn't ideal for her. But for the time being, when she can't fight to protect herself adequately- it's really the best way to go. Besides, if she has a husband, Soul Society will think twice about fucking with her. Even more so while in her condition."

"How do you know they'll think twice about coming after her?"

"Depending on who she chooses, that person will not only act as a father to her child, but can help provide protection that she may not be able to provide herself with later on. Besides, anyone that knows- really knows Ichigo, knows that she won't take any shit from anyone. Couple that with irrational pregnancy hormones and you have-"

"A recipe for disaster of epic proportions." Scott said weakly as Chad made a thoughtful humming sound and nodded.

Sighing T'Challa mulled over everything that he had heard so far before saying quietly, "We should speak of this at length once we are inside. Then we will plan accordingly."

Chad nodded again and waited until everyone was out of the vehicle before quietly following suit. He had a feeling that the talk he was about to have with everyone was going to be less than pleasant. Especially given how everyone was taking the news of Ichigo's condition.

He also couldn't seem to shake the growing sense of dread that Ichigo was going to nail his ass to the wall later for embarrassing her in front of these people.

* * *

A short time later, Chad found himself seated across from the king of Wakanda and his friends, anxiously drumming his fingertips on the table as he waited for everyone to get comfortable since they would likely be speaking for a while.

"So... How do you wish to begin this?" T'Challa asked as he regarded the young man curiously.

"I guess we can start this conversation by explaining a little bit about why this happened."

"Very well. Please enlighten us on how you're friend... Ichigo? Was it? Was assaulted in the first place. She doesn't seem the type of person who would allow such to happen in the first place."

"You aren't wrong about that. She usually takes such acts _badly_. And tends to treat the offender with extreme prejudice upon catching them. Anyways... I'm not sure exactly how much you know about her or her abilities but a while back she was very badly injured. She almost died before we could get her any sort of help. She was already in a weakened state before the final part of the battle took place. And because of that, her abilities were...on the fritz. So much so that she was practically a normal human by the end of things."

"To stop the person about to destroy this world and commit mass genocide on a global scale, she decided to sacrifice her power. And once the battle was over, all of her abilities- her strength, her ability to regenerate, every bodily function that basically kept her alive- was more or less gone. By the time she was taken to the hospital, she was in a coma. After which she slipped into a vegetative state. And we were told that she would probably never wake up again."

"She really shocked the hell out of us all when she finally woke up-" Chad said with a little laugh, "But then Ichigo has always had a knack for redefining the word, 'miracle'."

"Despite waking up, she didn't have her power anymore. Apparently what she sacrificed before was just a small portion of it at that time. In fact we believed it was completely _gone_. It was shortly after she was released from the hospital that she was..." He frowned but didn't speak further for a moment before then saying slowly, "Anyways... It must be why her abilities rebounded so quickly. I can't imagine how terrified she must have been. She's always been a protector- Of the world, the people and all other things in it- she's fiercely protective of anything with a pulse, really. And equally just as protective of those we know without pulses. So finding herself in such a position must have been a real blow to her as both a girl and a protector."

"What happened to the guy that did it? Was he caught?" Nat asked. Already silently making plans to 'confiscate' a plane and go look for the sorry bastard. Clint must have known what she was planning, because he reached out absently and took hold of her hand and gave it a small squeeze to let her know that all she had to do was say the word and he would go with her.

Chad let out a dark sounding laugh before saying, "Yeah. The bastard was caught alright. Ichgo must have just re awakened her abilities at the time because the authorities back home are still picking up _pieces_ of the fucker."

Someone let out a low whistle of astonishment. Clint maybe?

"She killed him?"

"I'm not entirely sure that she meant too," Chad said warily. He knew Ichigo had a little bit of a temper, but she had been training herself since she gained her...more _potent_ abilities on how to react to certain scenarios in real life so that she wouldn't accidentally use her power to harm another, weaker person. It was something that his friend prided herself on. Well, _used_ to pride herself on anyways. "Each of us have certain ethics and a code of conduct that we tend to follow and enforce on ourselves because we aren't totally normal and many of us have _friends_ and_ family_ who are."

"At the time of her abilities re awakening, she must have been under a lot of stress and suffered a huge trauma from what had happened. Her control would have been shit because of her terror. I can't exactly say that I feel terribly bad about the guy being blown to bits," Chad said with a slight shrug of his large shoulders. "If I had known what had happened sooner- I would have killed him myself. He wouldn't have gone quickly either. I tend to get really _pissed_ when one of my friends is messed with."

"That is something I'm sure that we can appreciate," T'Challa said diplomatically before then asking, "In the car before, you spoke about your friend being dissected. Would you please explain?"

"Basically the long and short of it is this, Ichigo is one of the most _powerful_ beings in the known world. She can literally _break_ worlds. And rip apart reality as we know it, if she so desires. The people that we work with are incredibly narrow minded. They hand down execution orders as easily as they breathe. And because Ichigo is as powerful as she is, they can't afford to lose her power or strength."

"Think about it for a moment. They see her as one of the single most destructive _weapons_ in all of the known world. They already try to order her around because of it. However because she was born human, she doesn't like to listen to them and they can't touch her for it. And they don't_ like_ that."

"She'll be much less inclined to work for them if she has a kid and husband to worry about. Which means that they won't be able to call her to their aid the next time something big happens. A husband and kid will mean less control over her and her future. Less fighting their battles and almost dying because of their crappy decisions and more staying home to take care of the family."

"And that scares them?"

"It flat out terrifies them. Because she's beaten so many of their enemies, and cleaned up so many of their stupid mistakes that they rely on her far too much. And they _know_ it. So when they find out about her being pregnant, they'll either lock her up in a lab and dissect her to learn if they can reproduce her power in others or they'll kill her to take the kid and raise it as a weapon if it shows even the slightest bit of power akin to her own."

T'Challa breathed deeply for a moment as he mulled over the giant's words before asking. "And it necessary for her to marry at her age?"

"Like I said, marrying will add an extra measure of protection for her and the kid. Kisuke, a scientist from back home that helped to train her and stuff. He's a really clever guy. He thinks that at some point during her pregnancy, the baby will begin syphoning her power into itself. If it does, she could suffer all kinds of health problems and other issues. Some of her old scars from former battles may reopen, she could wind up in another coma, she won't be as strong or able bodied as she is now. And if she were to get into a fight..."

"Say no more," T'Challa said as it dawned on him just how bad the girl's situation could quickly become. _Was this why_ _Stark sent her here?_ He wondered briefly. "We will help you any way that we can."

"Thank you. I am...definitely going to need it." Chad said.


	13. Chapter 13

Chad and the others spoke for the better part of two in a half hours, trying to plan accordingly due to Shion's pregnancy. T'Challa planned to call Stark and lecture him on sending young girl's in the family way to his country for...well, Shion had been somewhat secretive about _why_ she was present in his country.

So he might try prying the information out of Stark while they were having words later.

So far, the giant, Chad had begun making a list of potential husbands for the girl to sort through.

And though he wasn't exactly sure what had_ possessed_ him to volunteer himself for the position once the teen began vocally ticking off which people would suit Shion and which ones...would likely spend the rest of their days tormenting the poor girl or something.

However two in a half hours later, T'Challa walked out of the 'meeting' in a state of shock with the others following along behind him quietly. Each one bearing expressions of concern on their faces as the king walked along the winding hallways in a state of distress.

Oh it wasn't that he regretted volunteering himself for the position of the girl's husband. Far from it.

He was a king after all, and was expected to marry and have heirs at one point or another. He had weighed most of what he knew about the girl against any cons that he could manage to come up with and had decided that with the right guidance- she would make an excellent queen.

She was a warrior like himself, after all. And had an rather impressive track record, despite her young age, to support his theory that she would be a good queen to his people.

And he _did_ rule an entire country of warriors.

So it wasn't as if she wouldn't fit in here once she adjusted to royal life. And he would be a good husband and father... Or at least _he hoped _he would be.

Shion would be protected as his wife and queen. And her child would have both a father and a home. But more importantly, they would both have a place to belong. A purpose.

And it wasn't like he would ask Shion to give up her job, her education or even her family and friends back in Japan. As far as he was concerned those things were totally nonnegotiable.

Actually, before he married her, one of the things he would need to do is he would have to go and meet her father and speak to him and draw up some sort of contract that would further protect her and show that he had only her best interests at heart.

Something along the lines of he would provide for and care for her and her child whether they were together or not.

She would have his name, wealth, a royal title, and _any_ medical care she may ever need. She would be able to finish her education and even go on to college if she so desired. If she wanted to work- he _would_ support her in her endeavors.

In fact, he would ask very little of her as his wife due to her age and current condition because he knew that royal life was very stressful and often times very taxing on one's health. It was only fair after all.

He would also have to meet some of her friends and comrades to better understand how she had lived up until now as well as learn more about her.

Still, his point stood. And he was fairly certain that she would do well here.

"T'Challa? Are you okay?" Steve asked. T'Challa blinked and slowly turned his head to find himself face to face with a frowning Steve.

"I am." He said after a moment's hesitation. He was still a little bit shocked by what he had done and kept going around and around in his mind, looking at things from every angle possible to see if he had made a grievous error. But so far he could think of nothing that indicated such a mistake. Which left him...kind of stuck.

On one hand, he meant his offer in it's entirety.

And on the other... He was 'freaking out' as the American's put it. And rightly so, he supposed. It wasn't often a royal leader of a country as large or prosperous as Wakanda decided to up and marry a foreigner who could _literally_ end the world if she so desired.

Yes, freaking out was incredibly warranted right now.

And he had still yet to speak with Stark or the girl.

"You don't seem fine." Steve said worriedly causing T'Challa to stop walking, which in turn caused Clint to walk right into him and nearly knock him down. The former assassin yelped quietly and quickly removed himself from T'Challa's personal space as he turned his head to send the blond a small look of reproach before then saying,

"I merely have a lot on my mind at the moment."

"I would imagine so," Was all that Steve could really think to say before kindly asking, "Is there anything that you'd like for us to do?"

"Yes. I need to go and...speak to Stark. Should any of you run into or find the girl while I am doing that, please see to it that she eats something and perhaps relaxes for a little bit. Also tell her that I wish to speak with her. Although if you can't find her, try not to worry overly much. Something tells me that her giant friend may have more luck finding her than any of us would."

"She'll be upset." Bucky pointed in a worried tone.

"I am aware of that."

"Okay, so we...have a plan of sorts," Steve said before tacking on, "Go have words with Tony. We'll see if we can locate the kid."

T'Challa nodded his head absently and then meandered off as Clint walked over to Steve shaking his head and then said in a quiet tone, "Poor bastard. He's not even married to the kid yet and she's got him tied up in knots."

T'Challa must have heard him, because he stopped walking for a moment to cast a glare at Clint from over his shoulder. Silently promising some sort of humiliating kind of retaliation later on. Clint paled a little bit as he noted the look in the king's eyes and quickly put his hands up and skittered behind Nat to hide himself as Nat asked him why the hell he was hiding behind her, she wasn't going to save him after a comment like that.

Leaving the small group behind, T'Challa shook his head in bemusement as he walked off towards his study. His mind going over various things. The upcoming conversation with Stark. The contract he would need to write up for Shion and her family.

He would inevitably ask her what she would expect out of marriage- which might be somewhat more helpful for when he writes up said contract since she would have a say in some of what was written down. And then there was the need to approach her and somehow manage to broach the subject of marrying him.

Clint wasn't far off of the mark on his comment from before, he was tied up in knots. But it was for many different reasons than the former assassin may have thought.

He didn't think he would have much trouble easing into things as a husband and future father. He liked the girl, she was...oddly adorable if somewhat skittish around others and himself- However that was understandable given many of the things that had happened to her in such a short time.

Her need to adjust to certain life altering changes would be far greater than his own.

Walking by a large window, he happened to turn his head to look outside for a moment and noticed that his guard was training together, and nearly tripped over his feet when he saw a flash of orange hued strawberry blond hair. Freezing up for a heartbeat he stared wide eyed as Shion took one of his royal guards to task during a spar and almost felt his jaw drop in both shock and horror as he comically plastered his face against the window in an most undignified fashion.

Thank god that no one was around to see him. He would have never lived this moment down otherwise.

* * *

Shion was so pissed at the moment that she could spit fire.

It had been a little over two in a half hours since everyone's return to the palace and she knew- she knew that Chad was having a little pow-wow with everyone behind her back. However because she was still upset from before, she couldn't make up her mind between her current position. Which was hiding away from everyone until she felt somewhat calmer, or leaving her new favorite hiding place to go and stomp someone's ass into the ground.

Mostly Chad's since she was pissed at him.

And rightly so.

Just because he was miffed at her didn't give him the right to spill her personal affairs!

"Hello?" Hearing a thickly accented voice call out, she peeked over the edge of her hiding place to find the woman that drove her to the palace on the day of her arrival, standing directly below her, with a spear in her hand. Blinking, Shion frowned for a moment and wondered who the woman was calling out to.

It wasn't as if there was anyone around to- Oh. She was calling out to her.

"Damn." She muttered. So much for her nice hiding spot. She thought sourly as she replied, "Something that I can help you with Ma'am?"

"What are you doing up there?" The woman asked curiously. Shion flinched slightly and muttered something inaudible to herself as she slowly moved over to the ledge and then carefully dropped down to the floor in front of the woman. The moment she landed, something in the woman's expression changed from idle curiosity to something more akin to awareness or realization.

"Ah, you are a warrior. Now I understand," The woman said happily as she got a good look at Shion's face. The poor girl looked upset. Which didn't bode well for anyone that might have upset her. But would work out perfectly for her. "You know, sparring often helps relieve one of any anger and tension they might feel. And it helps with stress and aggression too. Since some of my women aren't present for training today, how about you spar with some of us until you feel better?"

Shion blinked at her again and worried her lower lip for a moment as she seemed to mull over her offer before then nodding her head. "Sure. I could use the exercise. Just do me a favor and don't aim anything for my stomach."

"Do you have an old injury that pains you or something?"

"Something like that."

"Very well. I will not aim for your stomach." She said as she started walking as the girl fell into step just behind her as she said, "I was not aware that many other parts of the world had children warriors. How long have you been fighting?"

"Longer than I care for." Was all the girl said. Her tone was agitated, causing her to look back at the girl. _Oooh._ Whoever had pissed the girl off was obviously in for a world of hurt later if she didn't work some of that aggression off.

"I don't think that I got your name before. Mine is Okoye, I am the head of the king's guard."

"Shion. But my friends and close family call me Ichigo."

"Both are peculiar names. Do they have any special meaning?"

"Shion has various meanings. God is gracious. The sound of the tide. And a few others. But they are hardly worth mentioning. And Ichigo, has two meanings depending on how it's written. One is strawberry. And the other is, number one guardian."

"Which name do you prefer?"

"Ichigo, the number one guardian."

Okoye nodded her head and made a soft humming sound before saying, "That is a very good name for you." Shion said nothing more as she followed the woman out of the palace and onto the training grounds.


	14. Chapter 14

Once T'Challa was able to recover his senses enough to make a run for the nearest door leading out of the palace, he metally prepared himself for the possibility of having Shion lash out at him in anger for stopping her spar with Okoye as he quickly and silently made his way out of the palace and headed straight to the training area.

Upon reaching the training area, he stopped only long enough to study the two as they attacked, parried, threw and grappled with each other. Taking note, with some relief, that the two females were sparring without weapons.

Thank _god_ for small favors.

Watching as Okoye tried to get the girl in a choke hold, T'Challa felt himself tense up a little bit. His eyes going wide as he watched Shion escape and flip the woman over her shoulder with practiced ease. Okoye hit the ground at the girl's feet with a loud grunt as the girl knelt down and placed a hand on the older woman's chest, and easily held her down.

"Don't move. Just hang out here for a few seconds and catch your breath." Shion said in a worried tone. Apparently fearing that she may have accidentally hurt the woman.

Okoye laughed in amusement and then asked her if she always showed such concern for her opponents. Shion didn't reply. Though she did flinch a little bit in reaction to the question. Which had Okoye quickly shutting up and bolting upright on the ground to gape at her with eyes as wide as saucers and her jaw practically hanging open.

"No-"

"So what if I do." It wasn't a question. Shion really didn't care much for the older woman's reaction to knowing that she showed compassion for her enemies. Frankly T'Challa couldn't really find it in himself to fault either for female their thoughts or opinions.

Compassion was a good thing and often made enemies, allies. But at the same time too much compassion for one's enemy could get someone killed.

It gave them a chance to strike when they thought you were weak.

He wondered briefly if any of Shion's enemies had ever made such a mistake as thinking her weak. But quickly pushed the thought aside in order to stop the two from sparring any further.

"Shion!" He called out sharply as the girl started to move in close to Okoye to start another attack, however stumbled a little bit and tripped over her own feet and fell into the woman instead upon hearing her name called. Okoye wisely caught the girl and put her on her feet again as she twisted around to look at him.

Her expression was somewhat startled, yet at the same time carefully guarded.

And for a moment or so he was puzzled about seeing such a look on Shion's face. However he quickly caught on to why she looked at him in such a way. She obviously believed that he must want to say something bad to her.

He_ hated_ that she would think that of him. But let it slide as he motioned her over with one of his hands.

She reluctantly, _very_ reluctantly in his opinion- said goodbye to Okoye and slowly made her way over to him and allowed him to place his hand at the small of her back and guide her away from the training area before he asked her if she was well.

She didn't respond right away. And that worried him. "I understand that you are upset about...before," He said kindly. "However it is dangerous to spar or fight in your condition. So please refrain from doing such in the future." She turned her head a little bit to glare at him for a moment, and he had to resist the urge to throttle her. She could be as angry as she liked, but he was right about this and for the love of god- she _would_ listen to him.

Because if she didn't...he would ask Steve and Bucky to 'babysit' her. And he knew that by the end of the first hour, the two were likely to drive the girl mad with their constant concern and coddling. Barnes was especially bad about such things.

T'Challa had seen him coddling one of his pregnant palace staff once or twice before the woman had gone on bedrest. He'd followed her around like a lost puppy until Steve had come to find him and drag him off to keep him from bothering the poor woman further.

Not that the woman had actually minded. Steve worried unnecessarily about far too much. But then Barnes had still been in the process of healing from his time under Hydra control. So perhaps it wasn't so unnecessary?

But he digressed.

"Come, we need to speak. But first, I'd like us to grab something to eat for lunch since we both haven't eaten anything."

"How do you know that I haven't ate anything? I could have eaten some berries or something." Shion finally said. Eliciting a small laugh from him.

"I should hope that you didn't since a majority of the berries found around here are poisonous."

Shion merely shrugged and looked unconcerned as she simply said, "I'm immune to most poisons."

He looked somewhat startled by her admission before stopping, and pulling her to a stop as well and placing his hands on her shoulders and studied her face for a moment as he asked her how that had happened. She said something about Kisuke as if the name should explain everything. It didn't.

But Kisuke was the same person that her friend had mentioned from their talk earlier.

He would have to see if he could look him up so that if he ever met the man, he could personally introduce his face to the ground for doing something so painful to the girl. After all, becoming immune to poison meant that one had to slowly introduce it into their blood. It was a slow, and sometimes painfully agonizing thing to do. And more often than not, led to death for many who even tried it.

Yes, if he ever met this Kisuke, he would surely make his life miserable. But on the other hand, at least he wouldn't have to worry about her _dying_ if she wound up poisoned by someone for unforeseen reasons.

Sighing softly, he gently released her shoulders and began to guide her, again. Once back inside of the palace, T'Challa led her down the hall back towards the dining area from the night before where they would thankfully be alone for a little bit. Which was perfect since he still needed to speak to her about what she wanted from a marriage.

"Come. Let us raid the dining room while we can for something to eat. Once the others realize what time it is, they will come running for their meal." He said jokingly. Hoping to make her smile.

He only got a lip twitch in response. But he supposed that was better than nothing.

After fixing themselves something to eat, they both sat down at the table and started to tuck into their meals when he finally decided to try and speak with her. She had just taken a bite of her food and was...sort of frowning at the plate as if she thought it was going to suddenly come to life and try to take her hand off or something when he asked her what sort of marriage she wanted with her future partner.

She stopped chewing what was in her mouth and practically looked at him as if his head were on fire before finally swallowing what was in her mouth and then asking, "W-Why do you want to know that?"

Deciding to be honest with her, he simply said. "Because I have volunteered myself as a potential husband for you. And I wish to know what you want from a union with someone older than yourself."

She made a strangled choking sound and wheezed out after a moment or so, "What? Why would you do something like that? You don't even know me!"

"I know that you place the lives and wellbeing of others above yourself. You are a warrior. Kind, compassionate, humble, shy- You are dangerous, powerful, willful... And you must be very scared of what the future holds for not just you, but your unborn child as well. I also have valid concerns about such things. That is why I asked."

Shion started to push her plate away, but T'Challa stopped her by pushing it back into place in front of her. "You need to eat. If not for yourself then for your child."

"I know that. I just...need to think for a second."

He removed his hand from her plate and nodded his head as he studied her for a moment. She was flat out scowling now. Perhaps asking her such a thing now had been a bad idea. He thought when she suddenly said, "I don't really _know_ what I want from a marriage to be honest. I never thought that I would live long enough to even _get_ married. Before I got my abilities, I was just a target for the local gangs and thugs to beat on. So it's not such a radical leap that they would have inevitably killed me."

"I see. Then you have never thought of it at all-"

"Maybe when I was four," She said with a slight shrug before then saying, "I can't really think of any little girl that doesn't think of such things when they are at that age. That's when we're at the 'I wanna be a princess stage'. Though I was much more interested in being a knight or a dragon slayer than a princess."

His lips quirked up a little bit in amusement. He could almost see a four year old Shion running around saving 'princesses' and slaying dragons with little toy swords. He would bet that she gave her parents no end of trouble. How cute she must have been.

_My tiny, fierce defender_. He thought with a small chuckle.

"Let me think... I would want someone strong, kind- because if any guy was stupid enough to be abusive towards me or my kid- I'd probably murder him," He blinked at her, but didn't loose his amused expression. "I never really bothered thinking about love. Guys don't usually care much for girls like me. I'm too rough around the edges, too aggressive... It's very _off-putting_."

He said nothing and merely nodded his head in understanding. Shion wasn't like most girls. She was a little bit of a tomboy. She would rather walk and talk like a man than act anything like a woman. She was strong, aggressive, and assertive. And that alone was intimidating enough for most men.

Luckily for her, he _liked_ strong women.

"He'd have to be caring. Like children. Have a really good sense of humor. Like a really, _really_ good sense of humor. My dad and sister's would have to like him. My friends too. He would have to understand that there are just some stuff that I will sometimes have to do that I don't really want too. It would mean going away for weeks, maybe even months at a time depending on what happens. And I'd have to be able to trust him with the kid without supervision. I can't do my job and come back alive and unharmed if I'm worried he's going to let the tyke play with matches or something. Ya know?"

He laughed, understanding very well what she meant. Many men just weren't that great at watching children while their wives were away. It was like they regressed to childhood themselves and simply forgot that they were adults.

In fact some of the most entertaining things that tended to happen around the palace was when someone's wife went away and left some poor fool in charge of their children.

"I would have to finish school. I doubt I'll have much time right away for college. But I'd like to work on something outside of being a Soul Reaper. I just haven't really narrowed down what I'd like to do just yet. Oh! And family visits and vacations are an absolute must! That is nonnegotiable. Some of the best memories I have as a kid are the ones spent with my parents and sisters on our family vacations."

"I see. What about fidelity? Loyalty? Do you not want those things either?"

"If I marry someone older than me- then it would be wrong to ask for those things. Think of it this way, I'm fourteen. And while I may become a wife and mother- the person I'll be married to won't be able to claim marital rights. And I can't exactly ask him to be faithful. Not when there's no guarantee that he won't find someone that he may actually _care_ for and _love_."

"So you truly do not expect much of anything from you're future partner?" T'Challa asked, sounding somewhat saddened that she really didn't have much that she felt that she _could_ ask for. Both her age and her work as a Soul Reaper, simply wouldn't allow it.

He knew that she was trying to be reasonable about her predicament, but he still wished that she would at least ask for _something _of her future partner.

However she didn't bother to say anything further on the subject, and simply finished her meal and then thanked him for keeping her company and then left him alone to think for a little bit.


	15. Chapter 15

Flopping down in his chair later that evening to await dinner- T'Challa couldn't help but feel utterly exhausted.

He wasn't sure which conversation had bothered him more. His talk with Shion. Or his conversation with Stark- who had understandably_ freaked the fuck_ _out_ the moment that T'Challa had informed him of Shion's current state.

After which he had started darting around the room like a meth addicted poodle or something, barking orders at him to keep the kid away from _any_ sort of conflict that may arise. Before then tripping over his own feet and crashing to the floor and abruptly cut their chat short by apparently concussing himself.

He had sent an email a little bit after their conversation had ended to let T'Challa know that he was _okay-ish_. And he was contacting the girl's family to see if they wanted to pack up and temporarily go to Wakanda to see her. He had also mentioned that he would be collecting a few other people to help.

With what T'Challa could only assume since Tony wasn't exactly forthright with specific_ information_.

After that, T'Challa had started working on a draft for the marriage contract. Deciding that it should have a small time limit just in case he and Shion did wind up parting ways for some reason or another. He also made sure to write down some clauses stating that regardless of whether he stayed married to the girl or not, Shion would be recognized as his Queen either until he remarried or she died.

Whichever came first.

Needless to say, that after several hours of working on a rough draft for the marriage contract (he wanted the damned thing to be absolutely perfect before he so much as let Shion see it) and managing to work out a decent outline for it- he was understandably very, _very_ tired.

And in desperate need of time away from his study and the steadily growing pile of nearly never ending paperwork.

"T'Challa!" He heard Clint call out as he entered the room with Nat, Steve, Bucky, and Sam. "How did things go with Tony? Did he tell you anything?" The former assassin asked curiously as he pulled up his seat next to Natasha and flopped down into it with a tired groan.

"He did not know about Shion's condition and 'freaked the fuck out' as you American's say," Steve opened his mouth to say something. But abruptly closed it again as T'Challa said, "He was so rattled that during his mad dash around the room he fell and concussed himself. I received a text after telling me that he was fine, and would be collecting her family and a few others to come and see/help. He also told me to keep her away from any conflicts that may arise."

"So he didn't tell you why she's here, huh?"

"I think in a way he did. Though I can't imagine anyone foolish enough to start a conflict of any kind within my country."

"Which begs the question; just what kind of conflict would require someone with kid's power to be present here?"

"Yes," T'Challa said thoughtfully. "I can think of a very few things aside from a country wide natural destruction that would wipe everyone out, would even require Shion's presence or her abilities."

"Oh? Aside from a natural disaster- what are the other reasons?"

"A high profile terrorist attack on the palace. War. Mass murder or genocide of my people." With every word that left T'Challa's mouth the others visibly cringed in horror. Dear god, no wonder Tony had sent the kid.

He must have stumbled across a plan or something to do any or all of those things at once and had sent Shion to Wakanda to take care of things before they got way out of hand.

Then again, on the other hand, it was entirely possible that someone working for general Ross might have come across Shion and known about her power and abilities and mentioned her to the Accords Committee during a meeting with all of the world leaders.

So it also wasn't such a far leap in logic that Tony had practically shanghaied the kid and sent her to Wakanda in an effort to keep Ross from capturing her and doing to her what Hydra had done to Bucky.

After all, Ross was fucking crazy when it came to powerful people of any kind. He threatened, bullied, blackmailed- and if that didn't get someone on team Ross- he tried to lock them away from some perceived slight so that he would always have their power at his fingertips. Whether they liked it or not.

All one had to do to really see just how insane the man was, was to look at how he had hunted and tried to kill Bruce Banner.

He would go total Hydra on the kid if he ever got hold of her! And it would be horrible. Like probably a million times more horrible than anything that was done to Bucky. The guy thought that he was above the law, so there was no end of things he could think up to do to the poor girl, and somehow get away with it all.

Especially if he had the government to back him since you know, she wouldn't be recognized as a human being and treated as such. As far as everyone in the government was probably concerned- if they knew about Shion- she was the newest weaponized toy that they would fully intend to break.

And that was _soooooo_ bad that there wasn't even a fucking word to accurately describe just how _bad_ that was.

Everyone else must have suddenly found themselves thinking the same thing, because Bucky looked like he was about to have an aneurysm. Steve, Clint, and Nat looked absolutely livid. And T'Challa….was growling.

Like actual honest to god goddamn_ growling_.

The loud, dark rumbling sound was all kinds of _protective_ and _furious_ all at once. And promised all kinds of irreparable damage and bloodshed and death should anyone so much as fucking _dare_ to lay their hands on the girl.

"Okay so we figured out why the kid must have been sent here?" Clint asked in stunned disbelief. Everyone nodded silently with the exception of Buky and Nat- the two were glaring at their empty dinner plates with similar expressions that Clint gleefully dubbed the 'bloodletting expression'.

If the two had had knives in their hands they would have attemtped to slash apart and bleed their dinner plates!

"Who else here is feeling really, really nervous right now?" Sam asked out of the blue, earning several different strained sounds from almost everyone present as T'Challa finally stopped growling and gave a dark look before abruptly getting up from his seat and stalking off.

Presumably to go and find the kid.

* * *

Chad was hovering over Ichigo with a worried look on his face as he watched his friend empty what little bit of food and drink she had taken in today into the waste basket that he had placed in front of her when she had collapsed in the middle of chewing him out for earlier.

He knew that she wasn't exactly pleased with him at the moment, but he hadn't thought that her anger would stress her out so much that she would actually become _physically_ sick. And start puking her guts out.

Unless this was a symptom of her pregnancy?

And that was part of the reason he was alarmed at the moment. He didn't know if this was a natural thing. An unnatural thing. Food poisoning. Anger or stress related- he should take her to the doctor, shouldn't he? But if he tried to touch her now to pick her up- the chances that she would try to rip his arm off in an attempt to free herself was pretty high.

Not that he thought that she would actually hurt hurt him.

Ichigo was a lot of things, but unnecessarily _violent_ towards her friends when it wasn't really wasn't one of them.

She coughed a few times and lifted a shaky hand to wipe at the sweat covering her face and he shifted a little bit towards her. His subconscious mind telling him that he needed to be closer. She needed comforting.

She was more fragile now than she had ever been dammit!

"Stop hovering," She said after a moment or so of silence as she slowly, and cautiously sat back against the couch behind her as she then said. "I'm not dying Chad. So stop worrying. You're making me nervous."

He visibly cringed a little bit and shifted a little bit closer to her again while staying well outside her reach. He was worried about her, not stupid enough to think that she had forgiven him for earlier when he'd practically humiliated her. He knew that she was likely planning something horrible to do to him before she even bothered to forgive him.

And he was fine with that.

He was always fine with her knocking him back in line when he did something he shouldn't. It wasn't like she would do anything irreparable. Though he knew she could if she was really of the mind to.

She was just...upset with him. That's all.

And it wasn't as if he couldn't take any punishment that she decided on anyways. He was tougher than he looked, after all. He'd have to be to run with Ichigo and the rest of their numerous and strange friends.

"Do you want anything? A doctor? Some water maybe?" He asked nervously.

Ichigo winced slightly and shifted her body a little bit to make herself more comfortable. The general tiredness, exhaustion, restlessness and stress that she was feeling right then that was radiating from her aura was easy to pick up on since it practically beat at his own.

"No. No doctor. No water. I brought some tea and child friendly meds to help with the nausea and such," She frowned for a moment before then tacking on in a wary tone, "I-I may need something for a migraine too."

"Can you take anything safely?"

"Yeah. The meds and stuff is in my bedroom through that door over there," She said as she pointed towards the door. Chad nodded silently and then quickly went to fetch her things, deciding that he might need tog o through whatever she brought just in case some of it happened to be non-child friendly so that he could 'confiscate' it and dump it out down a toilet later. However paused half way to her room when she called out, "Don't you even dare take any of my meds Chad! That crap wasn't fucking cheap!"

Causing him to let out a low, annoyed growling sound because she knew him so well before he continued on to her bedroom. He was still going to go through her stuff and check it. Though he knew that he may have to _draft_ someone else to do his dirty work for him and 'confiscate' whatever he found.

He wasn't all that comfortable with doing something like that. But a man had to do, what a man had to do.

Besides, with Ichigo in such a fragile state it might bode well for him to have at least _some_ form of plausible deniability just in case she decided to come after him when something went missing from her things.

And despite his actions during the ride to the palace, it wasn't as if he'd sell out whoever he drafted to do his dirty work for him. He was nothing but _excellent_ at keeping secrets. He certainly kept enough of Ichigo's.

The only reason he hadn't kept quiet before was that the reason that she was in this country coupled with her condition, was a _threat_ to her wellbeing.

And threats of any kind were not tolerated.

Not when it came to Ichigo.

Never when it came to Ichigo.

Because he knew that she was the one person that the world just couldn't afford to lose.

* * *

Finding Shion was easy enough for T'Challa. Especially after their somewhat depressing conversation during lunch. He'd had a feeling that she would have retreated somewhere she felt safe. And he had had her rooms fixed with the specific purpose of serving as a safe haven should she need it.

It looked like she had somehow instinctively known this, because when he slipped into the room, he saw her sitting back against the couch with her head tilted back on her shoulders. Her face was a pale almost chalky white, her normally soft pink lips looked as if they were bloodless and her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping.

However he knew otherwise.

He could smell the scent of stomach acid and knew that she had suffered a particularly rough bought of morning sickness.

Feeling his anger and upset from before slowly drain out of him, he felt it replaced by something else. A surge of protectiveness and worry.

He knew little about expectant mothers outside of bits and pieces of some experiences that he recalled from his own mother when she had been pregnant with Shuri. Not all of which had been terribly positive, though those experiences had left lasting impressions on him.

His poor father had ate most of his dinners in a broom closet and had slept at the foot of his bed for almost an entire seven months after his mother had become pregnant because he feared retaliation of some kind should his mother become_ irked_ with him.

The slightest of things had caused his mother to go on the warpath or randomly burst into tears.

And every time it had happened, his father had grabbed T'Challa and fled the palace for several hours/days.

The longest either of them had disappeared had almost been a week in a half.

After which T'Challa had become frustrated that he couldn't return home and had done so anyways after picking his mother some pretty wildflowers and showing up in the throne room. Where he had handed his mother the flowers, told her how lovely she looked that day and then announced that he would make his own food before he went to shower.

He had been quite sick of the wilderness for quite a while after that.

Upon his father's return he had all but begged T'Challa to help him get back into his mother's good graces. T'Challa had of course refused, and told him that he would never learn anything if he showed him what to do.

His father had called him a traitor to males everywhere. And then vanished back into the safety of the jungle for a spell. Of course T'Challa's mother had inevitably found out about his father calling him a traitor, and had left the palace for a little while armed with a spear.

T'Challa didn't know what exactly his mother had done to his poor father. But he recalled that the man had nearly pissed himself in terror and sworn off having anymore children. For _months_ after that, his father had jumped at the sight of his own shadow.

So he supposed that whatever his mother had done to him had left a lasting impression on him as well.

And while he knew that Shion was a great deal different form his own mother and would likely react to things differently, as worried as he was at the moment, he was also somewhat wary about getting on her bad side. Still...he felt the need to check on her.

Especially now.

He wasn't really sure why, but he was somewhat..._upset_ at finding her like this.

Moving stealthily past her, he made a beeline for the kitchen and quickly found a clean wash rag and wet it figuring that she might feel a little better if she had something cool to press against her clammy skin.

Once he finished wetting and ringing the rag out, he then moved back to where she was and slowly settled himself next to her on the floor in a kneeling position, so that he wouldn't disturb her. And then slowly removed the foul smelling waste basket and then reached out to place the rag on her forehead.

Her eyes fluttered open for a moment and locked with his own the second that it touched her skin. She gave him a weak looking smile and muttered her thanks before her eyes slid closed again for a second before reopening.

"What's going on?" She asked in a vaguely alarmed tone as she started to move her head up from the uncomfortable position that it had been in so that she could look at him more fully.

"Nothing," He lied. "I just wanted to check on you." That last part hadn't been a lie. He had wanted to check on her. Especially after his conversation with the others concerning the reason why she was there.

She was quiet a she studied him. He got the feeling that she knew that he had somewhat lied to her. Yet she shrugged her shoulders and then sank down a little bit further on the floor so that she could rest her head on the couch cushion behind her head before saying.

"You're worried about something."

He gave her a small smile. "I am the king of a country, I worry about many things."

"I know. But you're worried about more than just your country."

"You can tell?"

"Yeah... I can both_ see_ and _feel_ it in your aura." T'Challa tilted his head to the side a little bit, a curious expression fliting across his face as he waited patiently for her to explain. "A person's aura is basically the life energy within and surrounding them. It's like you're own little pocket universe. You are there. You exist within it. So the energy molds itself to your very being," He blinked at her, trying to wrap his mind around what she was saying. But it was rather confusing. "It's a lot like a mood ring. It changes colors with what you think and feel. The stronger your thought or feelings- the easier it is to see and feel it. However there is a limit to being able to see and feel a person's aura."

"You have to be exceptionally sensitive to others to be able to do it. And even then you can't always do it well. People mostly refer to such instances as instinct or gut feelings. It's a subconscious ability. So not everyone is really aware of what their doing. You're aura is all over the place. The energy is changing color and spiking all over the place. The colors that match to a person's mood vary."

"Yours is a headache inducing combination between anger, rage, frustration, worry, and affection. The negative feelings such as rage, anger and frustration are a combination of red and black. Worry is a white-ish pale green. Affection can range between white, pink, and light yellow. The fact that your aura is so many different colors and spiking all over the place tells me just how conflicted you feel at the moment."

"Fascinating."

"Not really. As I said, it's kind of headache inducing. And I kind of already have a….migraine."

"Oh. Should I leave then?"

"Nah. You can stay. I can see your already starting to calm down a little bit. So it should help you to stick around for a bit. Just don't be surprised if I doze off. Morning sickness is very exhausting."

"That is fine," T'Challa assured her as he moved to settle himself against the couch in the same position that she was in and watched her as her eyes drifted closed again before asking, "D-Do you want to lean on my shoulder? It might be more comfortable for you if you do."

"Offering to save me from a terrible crick in my neck?" She teased him without opening her eyes.

His lips quirked for a moment before he replied, "If it would help."

"Be careful about such offers, king. I'm a cuddler."

He chuckled softly and waited until she seemed to doze off before cautiously reaching out and slowly wrapping an arm around her and gently shifting her so that she was lying against his side.

* * *

Chad was silent as he observed Ichigo and the king interact with each other before realizing that he was going to have to either stay hidden in the bedroom until the man left or go out the damned window just to give the two some privacy.

He weighed the pros and cons of leaving the two alone for several seconds before sighing.

The window it is then.


	16. Chapter 16

How did he find himself in this situation? Chad wondered idly as he found himself straddling the very _naked_ body of the former spy/assassin known as the Black Widow.

Whom had apparently been taking a vanilla scented bubble bath before he had crashed her relaxation time by climbing into the window of her bathroom in an effort to escape the palace guards after he had been caught climbing out of the window of Ichigo's room a few minutes prior.

In his defense though, he had thought that the window he had climbed through would lead him somewhere else.

Somewhere _safe_.

Most certainly not into the woman's bathroom and into her bathtub.

Because this most certainly was not a safe frigging place for him to be. He could tell by the way that she was subtly trying to will him to catch on fire with her unblinking stare. The coiled tension in her body.

And by the look of absolute _disdain_ in her expression.

Oh yeah, now he remembered how he got himself into this situation. It was Ichigo's fault. Granted he'd never say such to her face, he was miffed at the moment- not _suicidal_. Besides, later on once he calmed down and managed to escape the pretty red head's bathroom _alive_, and hopefully in one piece he would probably laugh at finding himself in this predicament.

Ichigo would probably howl with laughter and bust a gut if she ever found out.

_Oh god she could never find out!_ He'd never live down the teasing! He thought in alarm as he _tried_\- oh god did he try- _not_ to look down at the woman's lithe, curvaceous form.

He was after all, a health sixteen year old boy.

Things like this were what guys like him usually fantasized about. Behind the safety and comfort of closed doors. Where no one could see or hear them.

Where they could later on _destroy_ any and all evidence of any arousal they may have suffered and not have to deal with any consequences.

"So...tell me, _Chad_... What brings you through my window during this time?" Natasha asked slowly, carefully watching the teen for any signs of anything more inappropriate than what was already happening. Secretly longing that he would reach for her breast or something so that she could break his hand and feel totally unrepentant for doing so.

However one look at the teen's panicked expression and the faint blush marring his face told her that this..._wasn't_ exactly premeditated. He had been in kind of a hurry as he had scrambled in through the window. And she vaguely recalled him being slightly confused to find himself in warm bubbly water.

And more confused to find himself practically in her lap.

Hearing some yelling outside, she turned her head just in time to see the tips of a few spears moving past the window before moving her head back into it's original position. A look of comprehension crossing her face as the teen tried desperately not to squirm under the weight of her stare.

Yup, he blamed Ichigo for this fiasco entirely. He thought as he started to stammer out an explanation coupled with many, _many_ panicky sounding apologies as Clint waltzed into the room, took one look at the wet, teen straddling her naked body and then promptly put his hands up and backed the hell out as he noted Natasha's hand slowly going for a large bar of unused- and still very solid- piece of soap that she likely intended to crack his head open with.

He'd lost enough brain cells already, thank you very much.

Let her brain the boy with the soap. He wanted his skull to stay intact for just a bit longer. Which was why he was going to...go hide himself in a vent somewhere.

* * *

T'Challa wasn't sure how long he stayed sitting on the floor with Shion leaning against his side, resting. But it must have been a while since by the time he finally managed to pull himself away from her, his muscles practically _ached_. Even so, he couldn't exactly just leave the girl to finish up her rest on the floor.

So once he was up, he carefully collected Shion in his arms and ignored the slight popping and protests of his body so that he could carry her into her bedroom and place her on her bed.

She didn't even stir once. Which was good.

He didn't really know what he would have said to her if she had woken up as he was about to leave her. And the last thing he wanted was to be caught slinking out of her room like someone who had just done something _dishonorable_. Not that there were many who would question him for being in the room of a guest at such an hour.

But he certainly didn't want any rumors flying among his guards or palace staff that may paint the poor girl's character as that of one with loose morals. And especially not in her already fragile condition.

The last thing he wanted on his conscience was for her to have a miscarriage because she was placed under even more unnecessary scrutiny and stress.

Sighing, he made his way back towards his study to try working a little bit more. He no longer had much of an appetite despite missing dinner earlier to go and check on the girl. He had wanted to ask her if she could tell him the definite reason _why_ she was in his country. However upon seeing her ill, he simply hadn't been able too due to his worry.

And then there was the fact that it was entirely possible that Stark had lied to her about the reason why she had needed to be present in Wakanda. Which was possible. Stark wasn't exactly the most truthful of people when he was attempting to protect someone from the truth.

And then there was the possibility that he was attempting to simply _remove_ Shion from whatever problem there was entirely. Or maybe he was trying to both remove her from the situation and protect her friends and family back home?

There were so many reasons why the girl could be in Wakanda at the moment that it made his head spin.


End file.
